abjad
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abjad
- /ˈæbˌd͡ʒæd/
- /ˈɑbˌd͡ʒɑd/
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Arabic أَبْجَد (ʔabjad), the term for the traditional ordering of the Arabic script (from the first four letters: أ (ʔ), ب (b), ج (j), د (d)). Compare English ABC and alphabet.
Linguistics sense coined by Peter T. Daniels.
noun abjads
- A writing system for Arabic, historically also employed as a numeral system, in which there is one glyph (symbol or letter) for each consonant but vowels are not specified. In Rabghuzi's Stories of the Prophets, a teacher asked Jesus, who was seven years old at the time, to repeat the alphabet and the abjad by rote.
- Any writing system in which glyphs are used to represent consonants or consonantal phonemes, but not vowels. Languages that use abjads include Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu. Abjads differ from syllabaries (such as the Japanese hiragana) in that the vowel quality of each letter is left unspecified, and must be inferred from context and grammar.
- The system of abjad numerals; a numeral system in which the letters of the Arabic abjad are interpreted as numerals, typically used to enumerate lists and nested lists, as well as in numerology. 1971, Mohibbul Hasan, History of Tipu Sultan, Aakar Books, 2nd Edition, 2005 Reprint, page 399, The other names had no significance, except that the initial letter of each month denoted its place in the calendar according to the abjad system, which assigned a certain numerical power to every letter
Similar: consonantary
Thesaurus
noun
Similar: consonantary
Translations
Every language
noun writing system
| Español | abyad, abjad |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 아브자드 abeujadeu, 자음문자 ja'eummunja |
| 日本語 | アブジャド abujado, 子音文字 shiin moji |
| 中文 | 輔音音素文字 /辅音音素文字 fǔyīn yīnsù wénzì |
| हिन्दी | अब्जद abjad |
| Português | abjad |
| Français | abjad |
| Deutsch | Abdschad, Abjad, Konsonantenschrift |
| Italiano | alfabeto consonantico |
| Ελληνικά | άμπτζαντ ámptzant |
| Русский | абджа́д abdžád, а́бджад ábdžad, консона́нтное письмо́ konsonántnoje pisʹmó |
| العربية | أَبْجَد ʔabjad |
| עברית | אבג׳ד \ אַבְגַ׳ד abjád |
Talk about this word "abjad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/abjad. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. abjad. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/abjad "abjad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/abjad.Cite this
@misc{abjad_2026,
title = {abjad},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/abjad},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
