C

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See also: c and Appendix:Variations of "c"

C U+0043, C
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C
← B
[U+0042] 		Basic Latin D →
[U+0044]

Ⅽ U+216D, Ⅽ
ROMAN NUMERAL ONE HUNDRED
← Ⅼ
[U+216C] 		Number Forms Ⅾ →
[U+216E]
Ｃ U+FF23, Ｃ
FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C
← Ｂ
[U+FF22] 		Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms Ｄ →
[U+FF24]

Translingual[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Etruscan 𐌂 (C), the source for Latin C

From the Etruscan letter 𐌂 (c, “ce”), from the Ancient Greek letter Γ (G, “gamma”), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤂 (g, “giml”), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓌙.

Letter[edit]

C (lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

A standardization of Ɔ and C because the latter happens to be an abbreviation of Latin centum (“hundred”), from abbreviation of ƆIC, an alternate form of >I<, from tally stick markings resembling Ж (a superimposed X and I), from the practice of designating each tenth X notch with an extra cut.

Alternative forms[edit]

Numeral[edit]

C (upper case Roman numeral, lower case c)

  1. Roman numeral hundred (100)
  2. the hundredth (100th)

Coordinate terms[edit]

Usage notes[edit]

With a bar over the numeral, i.e., as C, it represents one hundred thousand.

Derived terms[edit]

See also[edit]

  • Lesser roman numeral symbol: L (“50”)
  • Greater roman numeral symbol: D (“500”)
  • Roman numerals

Etymology 3[edit]

  • (element symbol, carbon): abbreviation
  • (metrology, coulomb): abbreviation
  • (computing, hexadecimal 12): From its position as the twelfth element of the series {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F}

Symbol[edit]

C

  1. (chemistry) Carbon.
  2. (metrology) Symbol for coulomb, an SI unit of electric charge.
  3. (metrology) Symbol for [[degrees Celsius#English|degrees Celsius]]; also °C.
    • 2019 December 2, Fiona Harvey, “Climate crisis: what is COP and can it save the world?”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Current commitments made by national governments under the Paris agreement fall far short of what is required – taken together, they would still condemn the world to an estimated temperature rise of more than 3C by the end of the century.
  4. (computing, hexadecimal) The digit for 12.
    0x0000000C
  5. (genetics) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for any cytosine
  6. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for cysteine
  7. (mathematics) differentiable class
    C1 functions are differentiable once, and C2 functions are twice differentiable
  8. (mathematics) denotes the constant of integration
  9. (physics) capacitance
  10. (linguistics) A wildcard for a consonant
  11. (Voice Quality Symbols) creak (vocal fry)
  12. (finance) Long-term bond credit rating by Moody's Investors Service, indicating that a bond is in default, with little prospect of debt recovery.
  13. (finance) Long-term bond credit rating by Fitch Ratings, indicating that a bond is low grade and on the verge of default.
  14. (clothing) Bra cup size.

Gallery[edit]

  • Letter styles
  • Capital and lowercase versions of C, in normal and italic type

    Capital and lowercase versions of C, in normal and italic type

  • Uppercase and lowercase C in Fraktur

    Uppercase and lowercase C in Fraktur

See also[edit]

Other representations of C:

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /siː/
Audio (UK)(file)

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c, plural Cs or C's)

  1. The third letter of the English alphabet, called cee and written in the Latin script.
See also[edit]

Number[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The ordinal number third, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called cee and written in the Latin script.

Symbol[edit]

C

  1. A standard size of dry cell battery between A and D.

Noun[edit]

C (plural Cs)

  1. (slang) $100; a c-note.
    • 1935, Henry Louis Mencken, George Jean Nathan, The American Mercury (volume 35, page 227)
      I keep on fairbanking the chump until he is between a poop and a sweat. The score is half a C and he's broke.
  2. (music) The first note in the C chromatic and major scales.
  4. (education) An academic grade better than a D and worse than a B.
    • 2021 June 18, Roberts, Sam, “Saul B. Cohen, Who Helped Raise CUNY Standards, Dies at 95”, in The New York Times‎[2], archived from the original on 18 June 2021‎[3]:
      Dr. Cohen himself got a C in his first formal course in geography, during a summer program at Harvard after he graduated from high school. But he went on to earn three degrees and become the executive director of the Association of American Geographers and a leading expert in political and human geography — a specialty field that explores the impact of natural and arbitrary borders, territory, resources and populations on a nation’s cultural, social and economic development, as well as its relations with other countries.
  5. (Unicode) Canonical Decomposition, followed by Canonical Composition
  6. (slang) Cocaine.
    • 1945, William Burroughs, letter, 24 Jul 1945:
      Where did you secure the C? My own supply is utterly depleted.
  7. Abbreviation of consonant.
  8. (UK politics, in election results) Conservative
Hyponyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

The programming language is so named because it followed on from an earlier language called B.

Proper noun[edit]

C

  2. (programming) A particular high-level programming language from which many others are derived.
    • 1995, Gary Wolf, "The Curse of Xanadu", Wired Magazine
      The PDP-11, from the Digital Equipment Corporation, was a coveted machine. It was the original computer to run a new programming language called C, which was on its way to becoming the hackers' standard. Gregory, as it happened, didn't have any spare PDP-11s at his disposal. But the repairman took the opportunity to question some of Nelson's blithe predictions in Computer Lib, and Nelson, in response, unleashed his glib and bitter tirade against the conservative ignoramuses in the computer business.
  3. (Britain) Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).
  4. (stock ticker symbol) Symbol for the company Citigroup Inc on the NYSE
Hyponyms[edit]

(programming language): Objective-C

Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Abbreviations.

  1. (entomology) costa
  2. (stenoscript) the sequence circ or its sound
  3. (stenoscript) the prefix circum-

Verb[edit]

C

  1. (Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of see; also c.
    • 2008 January–February, Chris Rodell, “Small talk, big results”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 80:
      Sure, we may use cellphones and e-mail hundreds of times a week, but we say very little. […] Most of our talk, even in privileged IM circles, is no deeper than the words we exchange with the pizza guy. […] U C wt I mn?

References[edit]

Afrikaans[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /sɪə/

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Afrikaans alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Noun[edit]

C (plural C's, diminutive C'tjie)

  1. C

Albanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

IPA(key): /t͡s(ə)/

Letter[edit]

C (upper case C, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Albanian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Angami[edit]

Letter[edit]

C

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Angami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Azerbaijani[edit]

Letter[edit]

C upper case (lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Basque[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Basque alphabet, called ze and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

See also[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Catalan alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Central Franconian[edit]

Letter[edit]

C

  1. A letter in the German-based alphabet of Central Franconian.
  2. A letter in the Dutch-based alphabet of Central Franconian.

Usage notes[edit]

  • In the German-based spelling, c is generally used only in ck (doubled k), ch for /ɕ/, /x/ (rarely /k/), and sch for /ʃ/.
  • In the Dutch-based spelling, c is used in ch and sometimes after the Dutch cognate for /k/ or /s/. The digraph sj is used for /ʃ/.

Chinese[edit]

simp. and trad.
 C

Etymology 1[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

C

  1. (electronics) USB-C
    C口  ―  sēikǒu  ―  USB-C port

Etymology 2[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C

  1. The third letter of the Latin alphabet.

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /s/, /k/, /x/, /ks/, /ʃ/, ...
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /seː/
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -eː

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Dutch alphabet, called cee and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Esperanto[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Esperanto alphabet, called co and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Estonian[edit]

Estonian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia et

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Estonian alphabet, called tsee and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Used only in foreign words.

See also[edit]

Finnish[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Finnish alphabet, called see and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Used only in loanwords. In more established loanwords replaced with k or s.

See also[edit]

Noun[edit]

C

  1. Abbreviation of cum laude approbatur.

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the German alphabet, called ce and written in the Latin script.

Hungarian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The fourth letter of the Hungarian alphabet, called cé and written in the Latin script.

Declension[edit]

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative C C-k
accusative C-t C-ket
dative C-nek C-knek
instrumental C-vel C-kkel
causal-final C-ért C-kért
translative C-vé C-kké
terminative C-ig C-kig
essive-formal C-ként C-kként
essive-modal — —
inessive C-ben C-kben
superessive C-n C-ken
adessive C-nél C-knél
illative C-be C-kbe
sublative C-re C-kre
allative C-hez C-khez
elative C-ből C-kből
delative C-ről C-kről
ablative C-től C-ktől
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		C-é C-ké
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		C-éi C-kéi
Possessive forms of C
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. C-m C-im
2nd person sing. C-d C-id
3rd person sing. C-je C-i
1st person plural C-nk C-ink
2nd person plural C-tek C-itek
3rd person plural C-jük C-ik

Derived terms[edit]

See also[edit]

Ido[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Indonesian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /t͡ʃe/ (standard)
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /se/ (variant, Dutch-influenced)
  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /tʃ/

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Indonesian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Italian[edit]

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia it

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C f or m (invariable, upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Italian alphabet, called ci and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Latin[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Latin alphabet, written in the Latin script.

References[edit]

  • C in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • C in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • C in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Latvian[edit]

Latvian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia lv

Etymology[edit]

Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed by K. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in German Fraktur, and sporadically in Cyrillic.

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The fourth letter of the Latvian alphabet, called cē and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Malay[edit]

Malay Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ms

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C

  1. The third letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nb
The letter C, c from the Norwegian alphabet, in two different fonts.

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Latin C, from Etruscan Etruscan 𐌂 (c), from Ancient Greek Γ (G, “gamma”), from Phoenician 𐤂 (g, “gimel”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (lowercase c)

  1. The third letter of the Norwegian Bokmål alphabet, written in the Latin script.
See also[edit]

Noun[edit]

C m (definite singular C-en, indefinite plural C-er, definite plural C-ene)

  1. the letter c, the third letter of the Norwegian alphabet
  2. indicates the third entry in a list, order or rank
    • 1857, Henrik Wergeland, Samlede Skrifter VIII, page 515:
      [jeg har] allerede sagt A. Traditionen vil nok lægge B. og C. til
      [I have] already said A. Tradition will probably add B. and C. to
    • 1939, Knut Hamsun, Artikler, page 100:
      historie er, hvad A mener til forskel fra B, og hvad C igen mener til forskel fra A og B
      history is what A means as a difference from B, and what C in turn means as a difference from A and B
    øl i klasse C ― beer with 2.75–3.75 volume percent alcohol
    førerkort klasse C ― driver's license for a truck
    førerkort klasse C1 ― driver's license for a light truck
    hepatitt C ― hepatitis C
  3. (education) the third highest grade in a school or university using the A-F scale
    å få C til eksamen
    to get a C on your exam
  4. (music) C, c-note (the first note in the C chromatic and major scales; the lowest note of an instrument, written below the staff and the D note)
    • 1997, Tove Nilsen, G for Georg, page 42:
      så gal at man virkelig tror at svaler er g-nøkler og bass-nøkler og a’er og c’er som svever rundt hverandre og lager konsert i himmelen
      so crazy that you really think swallows are g-keys and bass-keys and a's and c's floating around each other and making a concert in the sky
    den høye C ― high C
    • 1939, Knut Hamsun, Artikler, page 100:
      [de] larmet ikke og gik ikke og tok det høie C
      [they] did not make noise and did not go and did the high C
    • 1999, Børre Qvamme, Opera, operette og ballett gjennom tidene, page 70:
      Duprez vakte sensasjon ved sine ut de poitrine, høy c tatt som brysttone
      Duprez aroused sensation by his out de poitrine, high c taken as chest tone
    • 2000, Pål Gerhard Olsen, Fredstid:
      han gjør stolen hennes tobent så hun når den høye c av forskrekkelse
      he makes her chair two-legged so she reaches the high c out of fright
  5. C (Roman numeral hundred; 100)
Usage notes[edit]
  • Only used in words of foreign origin, usually English. Even rare in loanwords, as this letter does not represent a sound of its own.
  • Still kept in many Christian names, therefore Caroline and Karoline are both acceptable spellings.

Etymology 2[edit]

Abbreviation of celsius, named after Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744).

Pronunciation[edit]

Symbol[edit]

C

  1. (metrology) symbol for degrees Celsius

Etymology 3[edit]

Abbreviation of coulomb, named after French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb.

Pronunciation[edit]

Symbol[edit]

C

  1. (metrology) Symbol for coulomb, an SI unit of electric charge.

Etymology 4[edit]

Named C because it followed on from an earlier programming language called B.

Pronunciation[edit]

Symbol[edit]

C

  1. (programming) C (a particular high-level programming language from which many others are derived)

Etymology 5[edit]

Abbreviation of karbon, from French carbone (“carbon”), from Latin carbō, carbōnem (“charcoal, coal”), from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“to burn”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Symbol[edit]

C

  1. (chemistry) carbon (the chemical element (symbol C) with an atomic number of 6)
    • 1943, (Carl Fred. Holmboe, Michael Faraday, page 165–166:
      kullstoffet C (carbo) er tetravalent og danner metan CH4 med fire vannstoffatomer
      carbon C (carbo) is tetravalent and forms methane CH4 with four hydrogen atoms

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Nupe[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Nupe alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Polish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The fourth letter of the Polish alphabet, called ce and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • C in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • C in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Romani[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Romani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  • Yūsuke Sumi (2018), “C, c”, in ニューエクスプレス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 [New Express Romani (Gypsy)] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, →ISBN, page 13

Romanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The fifth letter of the Romanian alphabet, called ce or cî and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes[edit]

When followed by an i or e, this letter represents the phoneme /tʃ/, as in cel (/tʃel/) and citesc (/tʃiˈtesk/). When followed by hi or he (chi and che) and in all other cases, it represents /k/.

See also[edit]

Saanich[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C

  1. The fifth letter of the Saanich alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Skolt Sami[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (lower case c)

  1. The fourth letter of the Skolt Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Slovene[edit]

Slovene Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sl

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Gaj's Latin alphabet C, from Czech alphabet C, from Latin C, from Etruscan 𐌂 (c), from Ancient Greek Γ (G, “Gamma”), from Phoenician 𐤂 (g, “gimel”). Pronunciation as IPA(key): /cə/ is initial Slovene (phoneme plus a fill vowel) and the second pronunciation is probably taken from German C.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /t͡s/, [d͡z]
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /t͡sə́/, /t͡sèː/, /t͡séː/
  • Audio (letter name, non-tonal)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ə, -eː

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Slovene alphabet, written in the Latin script.
  2. The fourth letter of the Resian alphabet, written in the Latin script.
  3. The third letter of the Natisone Valley dialect alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Noun[edit]

C m inan

  1. The name of the Latin script letter C / c.

Inflection[edit]

  • Overall more common
Masculine inan., soft o-stem
nom. sing. C
gen. sing. C-ja
singular dual plural
nominative
(imenovȃlnik) 		C C-ja C-ji
genitive
(rodȋlnik) 		C-ja C-jev C-jev
dative
(dajȃlnik) 		C-ju C-jema C-jem
accusative
(tožȋlnik) 		C C-ja C-je
locative
(mẹ̑stnik) 		C-ju C-jih C-jih
instrumental
(orọ̑dnik) 		C-jem C-jema C-ji
  • More common when with a definite adjective
Masculine inan., no endings
nom. sing. C
gen. sing. C
singular dual plural
nominative C C C
accusative C C C
genitive C C C
dative C C C
locative C C C
instrumental C C C

See also[edit]

Somali[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /ʕ/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ʕæɪ̯n/

Letter[edit]

C upper case (lower case c)

  1. The twelfth letter of the Somali alphabet, called cayn and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes[edit]

  1. The twelfth letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is preceded by DH and followed by G.

See also[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Spanish alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Noun[edit]

C m

  1. (chess) Abbreviation of caballo.; K (knight)

Turkish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /d͡ʒ/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /d͡ʒeː/

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Turkish alphabet, called ce and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Vietnamese[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The fifth letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, called xê and written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

Welsh[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Welsh alphabet, called ec and written in the Latin script. It is preceded by B and followed by Ch.

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
Cymru Gymru Nghymru Chymru
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), chapter C, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

Zulu[edit]

Letter[edit]

C (upper case, lower case c)

  1. The third letter of the Zulu alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also[edit]

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