abecé

See also: abece, abecê, ābece, ābecē, ábécé, and á-bê-cê

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ə.βəˈse]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ə.bəˈse]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [a.beˈse]

Noun

abecé m (plural abecés)

1. abecedary

   Synonym: beceroles

2. ABCs, alphabet

   Synonym: alfabet

Further reading

• “abecé”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Galician

Alternative forms

• abecê (reintegrationist)

Etymology

Attested since circa 1300. From the first three letters of the Latin alphabet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [aβeˈθɛ]

Noun

abecé m (plural abecés)

1. ABCs, alphabet

   Synonym: alfabeto

   • c. 1295, Ramón Lorenzo, editor, La traducción gallega de la Crónica General y de la Crónica de Castilla, Ourense: I.E.O.P.F, page 466:

     Et mandarõ aos scripuães que nõ fezessem letera toledana -ca dõ Gilfos, arçebispo dos godos, fezo ẽno Abeçe suas feguras das leteras - et que husasem das leteras do Abeçe rromano

     And they ordered the scribes not to use the Toledan typeface -because Wulfila, archbishop of the Goths, did in the alphabet his own figures of the letters- and that they should use the Roman alphabet

References

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “abeçe”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “abecé”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “abecé”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Spanish

Etymology

From the first three letters of the Latin alphabet. Forms such as abece and A.B.C. are attested from Old Spanish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /abeˈθe/ [a.β̞eˈθe] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /abeˈse/ [a.β̞eˈse] (Latin America, Philippines)

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: a‧be‧cé

Noun

abecé m (plural abecés)

1. ABCs (alphabet)

   Synonym: alfabeto

2. primer (textbook formerly used to teach the alphabet)

   Synonym: abecedario

3. basic or fundamental facts about a topic

   Synonyms: abc, ABC

Further reading

• “abecé”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025