Z

The Latin alphabet
	Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd
Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj
Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp
Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv
	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz

Z is the twenty-sixth (number 26) and last letter in the English alphabet. The small letter, z, is used as a lowercase consonant. Z is not used much. It is the most rarely used letter in the English language. The same letter of the Greek alphabet is named zeta.

Pronunciation

In British English, the letter is pronounced zed /ˈzɛd/. This comes from the Greek zeta.

In American English, Z is pronounced "zee" /ˈziː/, because it comes from a late 17th century English speech.

Where it came from

Phoenician zayin	Etruscan Z	Greek zeta

Semitic

The name of the Semitic symbol was zayin and was the seventh letter. It might have meant "weapon". It could have helped form English and French's z.

Greek

The Greek form of Z was a close copy of the Phoenician symbol I. It stayed like this for a long time. The Greeks called it zeta, a new name made from the Greek letters eta (η) and theta (θ).

Etruscan

In Etruscan, Z may have been /ts/.

Latin

In Old Latin, /z/ (written s) became /r/ and the symbol for /z/ became useless. It was taken away from the alphabet by Appius Claudius Caecus, and a new letter, G, was put in.

In the 1st century BC, Z was put in the alphabet again at the end of the Latin alphabet. This was done to accurately represent the sound of the Greek zeta. The letter Z appeared only in Greek words, and is the only letter besides Y that the Romans took from Greek.

Meanings for Z

• In cartoons, Z means the sound of sleeping or snoring, like in "ZZZzzzz...".
• In particle physics, Z stands for the Z boson.
• In chemistry, Z stands for the atomic number.