alfabeto

Borrowed from Italian alfabeto (“alphabet”). Doublet of alphabet.

alfabeto (uncountable)

1. Noodles shaped like letters of the alphabet.

   Holonym: alphabet soup

   • 2016, The New Slow Cooker Cookbook, Adams Media:

     Small pastas like orzo, acini di pepe, pastina, alfabeto, and ditalini are perfect for adding to soups.

2. (music, historical) An early Italian alphabetic notation system used to describe chords.
   • 1987, Journal of the Lute Society of America, volumes 17-18, page 127:

     The monograph should deal not only with modal scales (their range, ambitus, "centonized" gestures, cadences, and structural application in music) but would similarly need to deal with the guitar's alfabeto, the labyrinth of guitar chords, movable chords, transposed chords, the progressions of B quadro and B molle in the alfabeto books, and so forth.

   • 1987, Betty Bang Mather, Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque: A Handbook for Performance, page 30:

     Composers for harpsichord, lute, viol, and guitar often placed chords or ornaments on notes in the positions of those strummed downward in the alfabeto tablatures, and composers for all instruments gave longer values to many of them.

   • 1993, Stanley Yates, The baroque guitar, late Spanish style as represented by Santiago de Murcia in the Salvidar manuscript (1732):

     In the Italian system, each letter of the alfabeto represents a chord formation on the guitar (the letter A, for example, represents a G-major chord).

• IPA^(key): [ˈalfabɛto]
• Rhymes: -ɛto
• Hyphenation: al‧fa‧be‧to

alfabeto

1. vocative singular of alfabeta

From Late Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos), from ἄλφα (álpha) and βῆτα (bêta) (the first two letters of the Greek alphabet), from Phoenician 𐤀 (ʾ /⁠aleph⁠/, “ox”) and 𐤁 (b /⁠beth⁠/, “house”), so called because they were pictograms of those objects.

• IPA^(key): /alfaˈbeto/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eto
• Hyphenation: al‧fa‧be‧to

alfabeto (accusative singular alfabeton, plural alfabetoj, accusative plural alfabetojn)

1. (grammar) alphabet

• alfabeta

From Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos).

alfabeto m (plural alfabetos)

1. alphabet

• alfabético
• alfabetizar

• “alfabeto”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

• IPA^(key): /alfaˈbeto/

alfabeto (plural alfabeti)

1. (grammar) alphabet

Borrowed from Late Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos), from alpha and beta (the first two letters of the Greek alphabet), from Phoenician 𐤀 (ʾ /⁠aleph⁠/, “ox”) and 𐤁 (b /⁠beth⁠/, “house”), so called because they were pictograms of those objects.

• IPA^(key): /al.faˈbɛ.to/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛto
• Hyphenation: al‧fa‧bè‧to

alfabeto m (plural alfabeti)

1. alphabet

   Synonym: (obsolete) abecedario

• alfabèto in sapere.it – De Agostini Editore
• alfabeto in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• alphabeto (pre-standardization spelling)

Learned borrowing from Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos).

• Rhymes: -ɛtu
• Hyphenation: al‧fa‧be‧to

alfabeto m (plural alfabetos)

1. alphabet

   Synonym: abecedário

   O A é a primeira letra do alfabeto.

   A is the first letter of the alphabet.

• “alfabeto”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “alfabeto”, in Dicio – Dicionário Online de Português (in Portuguese), São Paulo: 7Graus, 2009–2025
• “alfabeto”, in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisboa: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 2001–2025
• “alfabeto”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2025
• “alfabeto”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “alfabeto”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “alfabeto”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

alfabeto

1. first-person singular present indicative of alfabetar

Borrowed from Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos).

• IPA^(key): /alfaˈbeto/ [al.faˈβ̞e.t̪o]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eto
• Syllabification: al‧fa‧be‧to

alfabeto m (plural alfabetos)

1. alphabet

• → Bikol Central: alpabeto
• → Cebuano: alpabeto
• → Tagalog: alpabeto

Back-formation from analfabeto.

alfabeto (feminine alfabeta, masculine plural alfabetos, feminine plural alfabetas)

1. literate

   Antonym: analfabeto

alfabeto m (plural alfabetos, feminine alfabeta, feminine plural alfabetas)

1. literate person

   Antonym: analfabeto

• “alfabeto”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024