[Gk. Alpha and Beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.] The name given to the series of letters of which the words of any language are made up. Alphabets are very ancient, and every civilized nation has one of its own. In the Hebrew there are letters for the consonants only. Some alphabets have a letter for each syllable, and the Chinese have a character for every word. The English alphabet has twenty-six letters. Some have fewer and some more, the Russian having thirty-six.