Translingual

Letter

א

1. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

See also

• Appendix:Hebrew script
• Wide: ﬡ

Symbol

א

1. (mathematics) ℵ (a transfinite cardinal number)

See also

• aleph-null

Hebrew

Alternative forms

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 ‎(ḥ, “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

• (Hebrew script letters) א,‏ ב,‏ ג,‏ ד,‏ ה,‏ ו,‏ ז,‏ ח,‏ ט,‏ י,‏ כך,‏ ל,‏ מם,‏ נן,‏ ס,‏ ע,‏ פף,‏ צץ,‏ ק,‏ ר,‏ ש,‏ ת