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(Metric) As an upper-case prefix, E, see exa-, e.g. Eg = exagram.

mathematics As E, initial letter of exponent, see floating-point number. As e, the base of ‘natural’ logarithms (compare common logarithms). More definitively, the unique transcendental number such that the derivative of the function e^x relative to x is identically e^x, hence likewise the integral. Expressed in simple graphical terms, the uniqueness is that the graph of e^x is identically the graph of its own slope values, and of its own accumulating area covered. A precise valuation is given by the series

sub-atomic physics As e, see elementary charge.

informatics In hexadecimal notation as E for 14, the 5th digit after 9. For use such as 0.9876E+12, see floating-point number.

music See pitch.

The fifth letter of the modern English alphabet is represented by edad, [aspen] in the ogham alphabet of early Ireland; edad is the fourth vowel in ogham.

The key of E.

Symbol, exa-; electromotive force; eye.

• Abbreviations - E: east, eastern

Not to be confused with ㅌ or ∈. For technical reasons, E# redirects here. For the musical note, see E♯ (musical note). For the mathematical constant, see e (mathematical constant). For other uses, see E (disambiguation).

ISO basic 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

E (named e /ˈiː/, plural ees)^[1] is a vowel and the fifth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech,^[2] Danish,^[2] Dutch,^[2] English,^[3] French,^[4] German,^[5] Hungarian,^[2] Latin,^[2] Norwegian,^[2] Spanish,^[6] and Swedish languages.^[2]

Contents 1 History 2 Usage 3 Related letters and other similar characters 4 Computing codes 5 Other representations 6 References 7 External links

History

Egyptian hieroglyph q’	Phoenician he	Etruscan E	Greek Epsilon	Roman/Cyrillic E

⟨E⟩ differs little from its derivational source, the Greek letter epsilon ⟨Ε⟩. In etymology, the Semitic hê has been suggested to have started as a praying or calling human figure (hillul 'jubilation'), and was probably based on a similar Egyptian hieroglyph that indicated a different pronunciation. In Semitic, the letter represented /h/ (and /e/ in foreign words), in Greek hê became epsilon with the value /e/. Etruscans and Romans followed this usage. Although Middle English spelling used ⟨e⟩ to represent long and short /e/, the Great Vowel Shift, changed long /eː/ (as in me or bee) to /iː/ while short /e/ (as in met or bed) remains a mid vowel.

Usage

Like other Latin vowels, ⟨e⟩ came in a long and a short variety. Originally, the only difference was in length but later on, short ⟨e⟩ represented /ɛ/.^{[clarification needed]}

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, /e/ represents the close-mid front unrounded vowel.

In the many languages that use the ⟨e⟩, it represents various phonetic values, sometimes with accents to indicate contrasts (⟨e ê é è ë ē ĕ ě ẽ ė ẹ ę ẻ⟩). Digraphs with ⟨e⟩ are common to indicate diphthongs and monophthongs, such as ⟨ea⟩ or ⟨ee⟩ for /iː/ or /eɪ/ in English, ⟨ei⟩ for /aɪ/ in German, and ⟨eu⟩ for /ø/ in French or /ɔɪ/ in German.

In English, the salient phenomenon silent e's, although arising from old inflections that have been dropped, still retain a function as they indicate that certain vowels in the word are long vowels (for example rat has a short vowel and rate has a long one).

⟨E⟩ is the most common (or highest frequency) letter in the English alphabet (starting off the typographer's phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU) and several other European languages, which has implications in both cryptography and data compression. This makes it a hard and popular letter to use when writing lipograms. Ernest Vincent Wright's Gadsby (1939) is considered a "dreadful" novel, and that "at least part of Wright's narrative issues were caused by language limitations imposed by the lack of E."^[7] Both Georges Perec's novel A Void (La Disparition) (1969) and its English translation by Gilbert Adair omit ⟨e⟩ and are considered better works.^[8]

Related letters and other similar characters

• Ε ε : Greek letter Epsilon
• Ɛ ɛ : Latin letter Epsilon
• Е е : Cyrillic letter Ye
• Є є : Cyrillic letter Ukrainian Ye
• Э э : Cyrillic letter E
• ℮ : Estimated sign (used on prepackaged goods for sale within the European Union).
• € : Euro sign

Computing codes

character	E		e
Unicode name	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E		LATIN SMALL LETTER E
character encoding	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	69	0045	101	0065
UTF-8	69	45	101	65
Numeric character reference	E	E	e	e
ASCII 1	69	45	101	65
EBCDIC family	197	C5	133	85

¹ and all encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other representations

NATO phonetic	Morse code
Echo	·

Signal flag	Flag semaphore	Braille

In British Sign Language (BSL), the letter ⟨e⟩ is signed by extending the index finger of the right hand touching the tip of index on the left hand with all fingers of left hand open.

References

1. ^ "E" a letter Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993). Ees is the plural of the name of the letter; the plural of the letter itself is E's, Es, e's, or es.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Kelk, Brian. "Letter frequencies". UK Free Software Network. http://www.bckelk.ukfsn.org/words/etaoin.html. Retrieved 2008-06-25. 
3. ^ Lewand, Robert. "Relative Frequencies of Letters in General English Plain text". Cryptographical Mathematics. Central College. http://pages.central.edu/emp/LintonT/classes/spring01/cryptography/letterfreq.html. Retrieved 2008-06-25. 
4. ^ "Frequency of Occurrence of Letters in French". Santa Cruz Public Libraries. http://www.santacruzpl.org/readyref/files/g-l/ltfrqfr.shtml. Retrieved 2008-06-25. 
5. ^ "Frequency of Occurrence of Letters in German". Santa Cruz Public Libraries. http://scplweb.santacruzpl.org/readyref/files/g-l/ltfrqger.shtml. Retrieved 2008-06-25. 
6. ^ "Frequency of Occurrence of Letters in Spanish". Santa Cruz Public Libraries. http://www.santacruzpl.org/readyref/files/g-l/ltfrqsp.shtml. Retrieved 2008-06-25. 
7. ^ Ross Eckler, Making the Alphabet Dance: Recreational Word Play. New York: St. Martin's Press (1996): 3
8. ^ Eckler (1996): 3. Perec's novel "was so well written that at least some reviewers never realized the existence of a letter constraint."

External links

• Media related to E at Wikimedia Commons
• The Wiktionary entry for E
• The Wiktionary entry for e

The ISO basic Latin alphabet v t e
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
Letter E with diacritics
Éé	Èè	Ĕĕ	Êê	Ếế	Ềề	Ễễ	Ểể	Ěě	Ëë	Ẽẽ	Ėė	Ȩȩ	Ḝḝ	Ęę	Ēē	Ḗḗ	Ḕḕ	Ẻẻ	Ȅȅ	Ȇȇ	Ẹẹ	Ệệ	Ḙḙ	Ḛḛ	Ɇɇ
ᶒ	ⱸ
Related
History Palaeography Derivations Diacritics Punctuation Numerals Unicode List of letters ISO/IEC 646

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
abbr. - jord, øst, østlig, ægyptisk, engelsk, ingeniør, E-nummer

idioms:

• e number    E-nummer

Nederlands (Dutch)
laag cijfer voor student, e (grondtal van natuurlijke logaritme), E-snaar

Français (French)
abbr. - (abrév = Earl) Comte (titre de noblesse)
n. - E (cinquième lettre de l'alphabet), (Mus) mi, (École) E faible
symb. - code E, additif alimentaire

idioms:

• e number    code E, additif alimentaire

Deutsch (German)
n. - E (dritte Note in C-Dur), Note Fünf, der Fünfte
symb. - Energie, Elektron
abbr. - Ost

idioms:

• e number    Code-Nummer, die mit E anfängt, für Nahrungsmittelzusätze

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - το πέμπτο γράμμα του αγγλικού αλφαβήτου
symb. - ενέργεια
abbr. - Ανατολή, ανατολικός

idioms:

• e number    αριθμός Ε (πρόσθετης ουσίας)

Italiano (Italian)
E, mi, quinto

idioms:

• e number    additivo del cibo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - E (m) quinta letra do alfabeto
symb. - elétron (Fís.)

idioms:

• e number    número colocado em alimentos nos EUA

Русский (Russian)
5-я буква англ. алфавита, нота ми, оценка "неудовлетво- рительно", пятый

idioms:

• e number    номер 5

Español (Spanish)
abbr. - este, oriental, inglés, excelente, vía rápida
n. - quinta letra del alfabeto inglés, cualquier sonido hablado que se representa con la letra e, algo que tiene la forma de la letra e, un dispositivo (de una máquina de escribir) para reproducir la letra e
symb. - el quinto en orden o en una serie, calificación que muestra que el alumno necesita esforzarse un poco más para llegar al aceptable, (mús) tercera nota en la escala de C mayor, o quinta nota en la escala de A menor, (mús) un instrumento afinado en esta nota, (mus) una nota escrita o impresa que representa ese sonido, (mús) mi, el numeral romano para 250

idioms:

• e number    número base de logaritmo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - E (bokstav el. ton)
symb. - eko (radio)
abbr. - earl, east, Eastern (postdistrikt i London), energy (fys.), Europe, European

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
欧拉常数

idioms:

• e number    E数

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
abbr. - 歐拉常數

idioms:

• e number    E數

한국어 (Korean)
abbr. - East (동쪽), Earth (지구), English (영어), Elohistic Source (엘로힘 자료)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - イー, E字形のもの, 条件付き可, ホ音, ホ調

idioms:

• e number    食品添加物のコード番号

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) نوته موسيقيه, الحرف الخامس من الحروف الأبجديه (علامه) مختصر : الشرق East , أنكليزي English , مصر أو مصري Egyptian , طاقه ( فيزياء Energy ) (اختصار) مختصر : هندسه, مخدر اسمه أكستسي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
abbr. - ‮מזרח, מזרחי, מי (צליל), אנרגיה (פיסיקה), מצרי‬

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