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Definition 2024


א

א


א U+05D0, א
HEBREW LETTER ALEF
[unassigned: U+05C8–U+05CF]
ׇ
[U+05C7]
Hebrew ב
[U+05D1]
See also: אַ, אָ, , and Appendix:Variations of "a"

Translingual

Letter

א

  1. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

See also

  • Appendix:Hebrew script
  • Wide: ﬡ

Symbol

א

  1. (mathematics) (a transfinite cardinal number)

See also


Hebrew

Alternative forms

  • With Patah: אַ
  • With Qamats: אָ
  • With Mapiq: אּ

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme, usually) IPA(key): /ʔ/
  • (letter name) IPA(key): /alef/

Letter

א (transliteration needed) (Hebrew letter alef or aleph)

  1. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. The numeral 1 in Hebrew numbering.

Derived terms

  1. מ-א' ועד ת' (miálef ve'ád tav)(from A to Z)
  2. א"א (álef álef)
  3. סוג א' (sug álef)(high class)
  4. יום א' (yom álef)(sunday)
  5. אינו יודע צורת א' (einó yodéa' tzurát álef)(illiterate)
  6. לא ב-א' רבתי (lo beálef rabbatí)(No with a capital N)
  7. אלפבית (álef beit)(alphabet)
  8. א' אפס (álef éfes)(aleph null)

Usage notes

  • In Modern Israeli Hebrew, א (, alef) represents either a glottal stop (/ʔ/), or has no pronunciation besides that of the vowel attached to it. The pronunciation varies from group to group.
  • א (, alef)—along with the other guttural letters, ע (ʿ, ayin), ר (r, resh), ה (h, he), and ח (, hḥêṯ)—cannot receive a dagesh (the dot in בּ (b, bet), which can appear in most other Hebrew letters), although there are rare examples where the Masoretes added a dagesh to it.
  • א (, alef) is sometimes used to denote a vowel (usually /a/) in words of Aramaic and Arabic origin, in foreign names, and in some other borrowed words.

See also