B
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
| Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B |
|---|---|
| Basic Latin | U+0042 |
Contents |
[edit] Translingual
[edit] Etymology 1
From Ancient Greek letter Β (B), “‘Beta’”).
[edit] Letter
B upper case (lower case b)
- The second letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.
[edit] Usage notes
The letter B (usually its lower case form b) is used in several romanization systems of non-Latin scripts to represent the bilabial plosive or stop, usually voiced (IPA: /b/).
[edit] See also
- (Latin script): 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
- (Variations of letter B): Ḃḃ Ḅḅ Ḇḇ Ƀƀ Ɓɓ Ƃƃ ᵬ ᶀ ʙ Bb ȸ
- For more variations, see Appendix:Variations of "b".
- (other scripts) Β (B, “‘Beta’”), Б (B, “‘Be’”), В (V, “‘Ve’”), ב (b, “‘beth’”), ㅂ (b, “‘bieup’”), ㄅ (b, “‘bāo’”)
[edit] Etymology 2
- (blood type): from antigen B
- (symbol for boron): abbreviation of boron
- (hexadecimal 11): The eleventh item from the sequence {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F}
[edit] Symbol
B
- A blood type that has a specific antigen that aggravates the immune response in people with type A antigen in their blood. They can receive blood from type B or type O, but cannot receive blood from AB or A.
- (chemistry) The symbol for boron.
- (computing) Hexadecimal symbol for 11.
- (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for either glutamine or glutamic acid
[edit] See also
Other representations of B:
|
Uppercase and lowercase B in Fraktur |
B in uncial script |
[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
- (phoneme) IPA: /b/, SAMPA: /b/
- (letter name) IPA: /biː/, SAMPA: /bi:/
- Audio (UK)help, file
- Rhymes: -iː
[edit] Etymology 1
Old English letter B, from 7th century replacement by Latin B of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛒ (B), “‘beorc’”).
[edit] Letter
B (upper case, lower case b, plural Bs)
[edit] Usage notes
In Modern English, the letter B is sometimes silent, e.g. in climb, and debt.
Apostrophes are sometimes used to form plurals of single upper case letters, especially at the start of a sentence:
- A’s are difficult to achieve in this class.
Usually, though, the apostrophe is avoided when there is no risk of confusion:
- She gets straight As in school.
[edit] See also
[edit] Etymology 2
- (cricket, balls): abbreviation of balls
- (billion): abbreviation of billion
- (black): abbreviation of black
[edit] Abbreviation
B
- (cricket) the number of balls faced by a batsman
- The quantity one billion (1,000,000,000), usually used to signify a sum of money
- $2.8 B — “two point eight billion dollars” (i.e., $2,800,000,000)
- (British) The grade of pencil that makes darker marks than grade HB but lighter marks than grade 2B; a pencil with soft lead.
[edit] Etymology 3
- (personality type): from contrast with the letter ‘A’ and its corresponding personality type
- (academic grade): from the position of the letter ‘B’ in the English alphabet
[edit] Noun
|
Singular |
Plural |
B (plural Bs)
- A personality type of someone who is relaxed and easygoing and able to engage in leisure activities without worrying about work.
- An academic grade, better than a C and worse than an A
- Signifies a second-tier or second class of a given commodity, group, or category, as in B-movie, B-list, etc.
- The television studio revived some of it's B characters for the spinoff.
- (music) The seventh note in the C major scale.
[edit] Translations
[edit] Usage notes
Apostrophes are sometimes used to form plurals of single upper case letters, especially at the start of a sentence:
- A’s are difficult to achieve in this class.
Usually, though, the apostrophe is avoided when there is no risk of confusion:
- She gets straight As in school.
[edit] American Sign Language
[edit] Alternative forms
- (thumb unopposed and flat against the radial edge of the palm, used in rapid fingerspelling of words like B-A-B-Y) FlatB
[edit] Etymology
From French Sign Language sign for the letter B.
[edit] Production
This one-handed ASL sign is produced as follows:
- Posture the dominant hand in the “B” handshape .
[edit] Letter
(Stokoe B)
- The letter B
[edit] See also
[edit] Czech
[edit] Pronunciation
- IPA: /be:/
[edit] Letter
B
[edit] Dutch
[edit] Pronunciation
- IPA: /beː/
[edit] Letter
B (capital, lowercase b)
- The second letter of the Dutch alphabet.
[edit] See also
[edit] Esperanto
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
- The second letter of the Esperanto alphabet.
[edit] See also
[edit] Finnish
[edit] Noun
B
[edit] Italian
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
B m. and f. inv.
- The second letter of the Italian, and of the Latin alphabets
[edit] Romanian
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
- The letter Be, the fourth letter of the Romanian alphabet.
[edit] See also
[edit] Slovene
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Letter
B (capital, lowercase b)
- The second letter of the Slovene alphabet. Preceded by A and followed by C.
[edit] Spanish
[edit] Letter
B (upper case, lower case b)
- The second letter of the Spanish alphabet.

