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o

 
Dictionary: o or O (ō) pronunciation
 
n., pl. o's or O's also os or Os.
  1. The 15th letter of the modern English alphabet.
  2. Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter o.
  3. The 15th in a series.
  4. Something shaped like the letter O.
  5. O One of the four major blood groups in the ABO system. Individuals with this blood group have neither A nor B antigens on the surface of their red blood cells, and have both anti-A and anti-B antibodies in their blood serum.
  6. A zero.

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The fifteenth letter of the modern English alphabet is represented by onn [Irish, ash, furze] in the ogham alphabet of early Ireland.

 
O, 15th letter of the alphabet. It is a usual symbol for a mid-back, rounded vowel, rather like the first part of oi. Such a vowel was represented by omicron [Gr.,=little o], its formal and positional correspondent in the Greek alphabet. English ō is a diphthong of ŏ and w. In chemistry O is the symbol of the element oxygen. In surnames O' is derived from the Irish patronymic system; e.g., O'Neill meant “grandson of Niall,” probably referring originally to Niall Glundubh, high king of Ireland, 915–19 (see name).


 
Wikipedia: O
Top
O
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  

O is the fifteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English (pronounced /oʊ/) is spelled o; the plural is oes, though this is rare.[1]

Contents

History

Egyptian hieroglyph `O Proto-Semitic O Phoenician O Etruscan O Greek Omicron
D4
Image:Proto-semiticO-01.svg Image:PhoenicianO-01.png

The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin (eye), which represented a consonant, probably the voiced pharyngeal fricative (IPA: [ʕ]), the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a similar Egyptian hieroglyph for "eye".

The Greeks are thought to have come up with the innovation of vowel characters, and lacking a pharyngeal consonant, employed this letter as the Greek O to represent the vowel /o/, a sound it maintained in Etruscan and Latin. In Greek, a variation of the form later came to distinguish this long sound (Omega, meaning "large O") from the short o (Omicron, meaning "small o").

Its graphic form has also remained fairly constant from Phoenician times until today. Indeed, even alphabets constructed "from scratch", i.e. not derived from Semitic, usually have similar forms to represent this sound -- for example the creators of the Afaka and Ol Chiki scripts, each invented in different parts of the world in the last century, both attributed their vowels for 'O' to the shape of the mouth when making this sound.

Usage

O is most commonly associated with the close-mid back rounded vowel [o] in many languages. This form is colloquially termed the "long o" in English, but it is actually most often a diphthong /oʊ/ (realized dialectically anywhere from [o] to [əʊ]).

In English there is also a "short O", which also has several pronunciations. In most dialects of English English, it is an open back rounded vowel [ɒ]; in North America, it is most commonly an unrounded back to central vowel [ɑː] to [a].

Common digraphs include OO, which represents either /ʊ/ or /uː/; OI which typically represents the diphthong /ɔɪ/; and OA, OE, and OU represent a variety of pronunciations depending on context and etymology.

Other languages use O for various values, usually back vowels which are at least partly open. Derived letters such as Ö and Ø have been created for the alphabets of some languages to distinguish values that were not present in Latin and Greek, particularly rounded front vowels.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, [o] represents the close-mid back rounded vowel.

Codes for computing

Alternative representations of O
NATO phonetic Morse code
Oscar –––
⠕
Signal flag Flag semaphore Braille

In Unicode, the capital O is codepoint U+004F and the lowercase o is U+006F.

The ASCII code for capital O is 79 and for lowercase o is 111; or in binary 01001111 and 01101111, correspondingly.

The EBCDIC code for capital O is 214 and for lowercase o is 150.

The numeric character references in HTML and XML are "O" and "o" for upper and lower case respectively.

See also

References

  1. ^ "P" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Chambers-Happap, "oes" op. cit. Oes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is Os, O's, os, o's.
The Basic modern 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
Letter O with diacritics
Two-letter combinations
Oa Ob Oc Od Oe Of Og Oh Oi Oj Ok Ol Om On Oo Op Oq Or Os Ot Ou Ov Ow Ox Oy Oz
OA OB OC OD OE OF OG OH OI OJ OK OL OM ON OO OP OQ OR OS OT OU OV OW OX OY OZ
Letter-digit & Digit-letter combinations
    O0 O1 O2 O3 O4 O5 O6 O7 O8 O9     0O 1O 2O 3O 4O 5O 6O 7O 8O 9O    

history palaeography derivations diacritics punctuation numerals Unicode list of letters ISO/IEC 646


 

Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - det 15.bogstavet i alfabetet

2.
abbr. - of, on

1.
n. - 0, nul, almindelig forstavelse i anglo-irske navne

2.
abbr. - Officer, Order, Ohio
symb. - kemisk tegn for ilt

idioms:

  • o Level    ordinary level; gammel britisk eksamensbetegnelse

3.
int. - å!, ak!, hvem der havde...!

Nederlands (Dutch)
nul, oud, nulpunt, niets, zuurstof

Français (French)
1.
n. - o (quinzième lettre de l'alphabet)

2.
abbr. - (abrév) d'octave, vieux, seulement, ordre, (Pharm) pinte

1.
n. - O (lettre), zéro

2.
abbr. - (abrév écrite = Ohio) (US, Postes) Ohio, (abrév = over(s)) (Sport) série de six balles ou lancées (au cricket), (abrév) d'Océan
symb. - (Chim) oxygène, groupe sanguin O

idioms:

  • o Level    (abrév = Ordinary Level), (GB, École) équivalent du brevet d'études du premier cycle

3.
int. - Oh (excl)

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Null

2.
abbr. - Oktav, Ozean

1.
n. - Null

2.
abbr. - Oktav, Ozean
symb. - Blutgruppe O, (Chem.) Sauerstoff

idioms:

  • o Level    Abschluß der Mittelstufe

3.
int. - Oh!

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - το δέκατο πέμπτο γράμμα του αγγλικού αλφαβήτου, μηδέν
abbr. - του (αντί του of)
symb. - οξυγόνο
int. - Ω (σε προσφωνήσεις)
pref. - (σε ιρλανδέζικα ονόματα) γιος του
prep. - του (αντί του of)

idioms:

  • o Level    (Βρετ.) διαγωνισμός γυμνασίου (που ίσχυε ώς το 1988)

Italiano (Italian)
O, osservatore, ufficiale, funzionario, oceano, zero, ossigeno

idioms:

  • o Level    licenza media

Português (Portuguese)
n. - O (m)
abbr. - Oxigênio (m), octavo (Mus.)
symb. - O (m)
int. - O!
pref. - O (m)
prep. - do

idioms:

  • o Level    nível O

Русский (Russian)
ноль, кислород, 15-ая буква англ. алфавита

idioms:

  • o Level    аттестат о среднем образовании

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - letra O

2.
abbr. - orden, viejo, pinta, octavo, solamente, apagado

1.
n. - letra O, objeto con forma de o

2.
abbr. - Ohio, cero, nulidad
symb. - oxígeno, tipo sanguíneo

idioms:

  • o Level    crédito de enseñanza elemental (en Inglaterra)

3.
int. - Oh!

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - O, nolla, noll
abbr. - O, Ocean, Ohio, Old, oxygen:syre
symb. - den femtonde i ordningen el i en serie, blodgrupp O, noll, oxygen
int. - O!, ack!
pref. - O' (obetonad förstavelse i vissa irländska namn)
prep. - från, av

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 英语字母中的第十五个字母, 小写为o, 零

idioms:

  • o Level    普通程度, 中学生的普通考试

2. 美国俄亥俄州, 棒球等的出局, 海, 氧气

1. 英语字母的第十五个字母, 圆形, o字形物, 零

2. 八开纸, 八开本, 一品脱的量, 棒球等的出局

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
int. - 英語字母中的第十五個字母, 小寫為o, 零

idioms:

  • o Level    普通程度, 中學生的普通考試

2.
abbr. - 美國俄亥俄州, 棒球等的出局, 海, 氧氣

1.
abbr. - 八開紙, 八開本, 一品脫的量, 棒球等的出局

2.
n. - 英語字母的第十五個字母, 圓形, o字形物, 零

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 숫자의 0

2.
abbr. - of의 단축형

1.
n. - 영어 알파벳의 제15째 글자 O, 원형

2.
abbr. - Oxygen(산소)
symb. - 감탄의 의미를 지닌 오!

3.
int. - 오! , 아!, 어머나!

日本語 (Japanese)
int. - ああ, あっ
n. - オー, O字形のもの, ゼロ

idioms:

  • o Level    普通級

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الحرف الخامس عشر من الحروف الأبجديه الإنجليزيه (اختصار) Ohm, وحدة قوة المقاومه الكهربائيه, لمOنهزذظ, الأكسجين (علامه) مختصر zero: صفر, أوكسجين oxygen , صنف دم (نداء) آه (بادئه الكلمه) بادئه للأسماء الأيرلنديه تعني " أبن ", (كيمياء) أورثو ( مستقيم) (حرف جر) مختصر كلمه on أو of‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮האות החמש-עשרה של האלפבית האנגלי‬
abbr. - ‮קיצור של FO (של) במספר ביטויים באנגלית‬
n. - ‮סוג דם ממערכת OBA, אפס, שום-דבר‬
abbr. - ‮אוהיו (מדינה בארה"ב), קריאת שופט להחלפת צדדים (קריקט)‬
symb. - ‮חמצן (יסוד)‬
int. - ‮אוי, הו‬


 
Best of the Web: o
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Some good "o" pages on the web:


American Sign Language
commtechlab.msu.edu
 

Math
mathworld.wolfram.com
 
 
 
Learn More
o/a (abbreviation)
Padimate O
o. (abbreviation)

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Celtic Mythology. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Copyright © James MacKillop 1998, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Music. © 2003 The Austin Symphony. All Rights Reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "O" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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