B

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

B U+0042, B
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B
A
[U+0041]
Basic Latin C
[U+0043]

Translingual

Etymology 1

From the Etruscan letter 𐌁 (b, be), from the Ancient Greek letter Β (B, beta), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤁 (b, bet), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓉐.

Letter

B (lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.
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 (/b/).

See also

Symbol

B

  1. 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.
  2. (chemistry) The chemical element boron.
  3. Eleven, especially used in the base more than ten, such as duodecimal, hexadecimal, vigesimal and so on.
    The equivalent numbers of decimal 1611 are duodecimal B23, hexadecimal 64B, vigesimal 40B and so on.
  4. (biochemistry) As an IUPAC code for amino acids, aspartic acid or asparagine.
  5. (physics) A magnetic flux density.
  6. (linguistics) A wildcard for a labial consonant
  7. (finance) Long-term bond credit rating by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, indicating that a bond is highly speculative with high risk of default.
  8. (clothing) Bra cup size.

See also

  • (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}

Other representations of B:

Further reading


English

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /b/
  • (letter name) IPA(key): /biː/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -iː

Etymology 1

The b-rune ᛒ, an older version of Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛒ, the Old English letter replaced by Latin ‘B’

Old English letter B, from 7th century replacement by Latin B of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter (B, beorc).

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b, plural Bs or B's)

  1. The second letter of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.
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.
See also

Number

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

Etymology 2

  • (cricket, balls): abbreviation of balls
  • (billion): abbreviation of billion
  • (black): abbreviation of black

Noun

B

  1. (cricket) the number of balls faced by a batsman
  2. 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)
  3. (Britain) The grade of pencil that makes darker marks than grade HB but lighter marks than grade 2B; a pencil with soft lead.
  4. (chess) Bishop
  5. (music) Bass.
  6. (immunology) a B cell.
    • 2020 May 2, “Leaving lockdown means understanding immune responses to the virus”, in The Economist:
      Mind your Bs and Ts
      [] And if the combined efforts of macrophages, b cells and t cells are sufficient, the pathogen will be beaten back and eventually cleared from the body.

Suffix

B

  1. (stenoscript) a suffix -(V)ble (-ible, -able.)
Derived terms

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

Noun

B (plural Bs)

  1. A personality type of someone who is relaxed and easygoing and able to engage in leisure activities without worrying about work.
  2. An academic grade, better than a C and worse than an A
  3. 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 its B characters for the spinoff.
    • 1999, Michael Sauter, The Worst Movies of All Time, Or, What Were They Thinking? (page 268)
      The baddest of the Bs, then, are a rare, precious mix of jerry-built production values and jazzed-up creative juices. But that's not to say that even with a budget, a B movie can't still bounce way off the wall, []
  4. Alternate or secondary part, as the back side of a phonograph record. Contrasted with A, which is the primary part.
  5. (music) The seventh note in the C major scale.
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.
Translations
See also

Symbol

B

  1. (computing) byte
Derived terms
Translations
See also
  • (computing): b (bit)

Proper noun

B

  1. (computer languages) A programming language from which C is derived.

Afar

Letter

B

  1. The second letter in the Afar alphabet.

See also


Afrikaans

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /bɪə/

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also

Noun

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

  1. B

Azerbaijani

Letter

B upper case (lower case b)

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

See also


Basque

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /be/, [be̞]

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Basque alphabet, called be and written in the Latin script.

See also


Blagar

Letter

B

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

See also


Catalan

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /be/

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


Central Franconian

Etymology

  • /b/ is from West Germanic stem-initial *b, in Ripuarian and northernmost Moselle Franconian also from geminated *bb.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /b/, (coda) [p]

Letter

B

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

Usage notes


Chinese

Pronunciation


Noun

B

  1. (Mandarin, chiefly Internet slang) Alternative form of ().

Etymology 2

Short for BB (bi1-4 bi1, “baby”).

Pronunciation

Noun

B

  1. (Cantonese) baby (Classifier: c)
    BB [Cantonese]   wai3, tai2 zyu6 go3 bi1 aa3! [Jyutping]   Hey, look after the baby!
Synonyms
Compounds
  • 湊B凑B
  • 養B养B

Etymology 3

Cantonese boi1
Spelling pronunciation in Hong Kong, derived from English boy.

Pronunciation 1


Note: boi1 - Hong Kong.
Note: Often realised as 1bi..
Letter

B

  1. The second letter of the Latin alphabet.

Pronunciation 2


Letter

B

  1. The second letter used in Pinyin.
Usage notes
  • 《汉语拼音方案》 defines a standard pronunciation for each letter. However, these pronunciations are rarely used in education; another pronunciation is commonly used instead.
  • The pronunciation above are only used while referring to letters in Pinyin. They are not used in other context (such as English).

Czech

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /beː/

Letter

B

  1. B (the 2nd letter in the Czech alphabet)

See also

Noun

B

  1. (music) B flat

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /beː/
  • (file)

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


Esperanto

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /bo/
  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/
  • (file)
  • Homophone (letter name): bo-

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Esperanto alphabet, called bo and written in the Latin script.

See also


Estonian

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Estonian alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.

See also


Finnish

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Finnish alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

  • Used only in loanwords.

See also

Noun

B

  1. Abbreviation of lubenter approbatur.

Galician

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /beː/
  • (file)

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the German alphabet, called be and written in the Latin script.

See also

Noun

B n (strong, genitive B, no plural)

  1. (music) B-flat

Declension

See also

  • H (“B (musical note)”)

Hungarian

Alternative forms

  • b (in music)

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): [ˈb]
  • (letter name): IPA(key): [ˈbeː]
  • (file)

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The third letter of the Hungarian alphabet, called and written in the Latin script.
  2. (music) Alternative form of b (B-flat, B♭, the 11th note of the C chromatic scale)

Declension

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

Derived terms

Compound words
  • B-dúr
  • b-moll

See also

Further reading

  • (the letter and symbol): (1): b in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
  • (in music): (2): b in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
  • b in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (’A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2023)

Ido

Pronunciation

Letter

B (lower case b)

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

See also


Indonesian

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /be/
  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


Italian

Pronunciation

  • (letter name) IPA(key): **/ˈbi/*
    • Rhymes: -i
  • (phonemic realization) IPA(key): /b/

Letter

B f or m (invariable, upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Italian alphabet, called bi and written in the Latin script.

See also


Kalo Finnish Romani

Pronunciation

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Kalo Finnish Romani alphabet, written in the Latin script.[1]

See also

References

  1. Kimmo Granqvist (2011), “Aakkoset [Alphabet]”, in Lyhyt Suomen romanikielen kielioppi [Consice grammar of Finnish Romani] (in Finnish), Kotimaisten kielten keskus, →ISBN, ISSN 1796-041X, retrieved February 6, 2022, pages 1-2

Latvian

Etymology

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

  • IPA(key): [b]
  • (file)

Letter

B

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


Malay

Pronunciation

  • (Name of letter) IPA(key): [bi]
  • (Phoneme, Syllable initial) IPA(key): [b]
  • (Phoneme, Syllable final) IPA(key): [p̚]

Letter

B

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

See also


Maltese

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


Norwegian Bokmål

The uppercase and lowercase form of the letter B.

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin B, from Etruscan 𐌁 (b, be), from Ancient Greek Β (B, beta), from the Phoenician 𐤁 (b, bet), from Proto-Canaanite , from Proto-Sinaitic , from Egyptian 𓉐, representing the plan of a house.

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /beː/
  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -eː
  • Hyphenation: B
  • Homophones: b, be

Letter

B (lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Norwegian Bokmål alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Noun

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

  1. the letter B, the second letter of the Norwegian alphabet
    • 1873, Henrik Ibsen, Kærlighedens komedie, page 14:
      [ordet «neste»] skulde ud af verden uden nåde, som b og g af Knudsens grammatik
      [the word «next»] was to come out of the world without grace, as b and g of Knudsen's grammar
  2. Denoting the second, or number two, on a scale, order or degree.
    • 2003, Espen Søbye, Kathe, alltid vært i Norge:
      øverst i oppgang b lå den nye presteboligen med åtte rom, hall, entré og kjøkken
      at the top of entrance b was the new parsonage with eight rooms, hall, entrance and kitchen
    B-post, B-lag, blodtype B, energiklasse B B-post, B-team, blood type B, energy class B
    øl i klasse B beer with 0.7–2.75 volume percent alcohol
    førerkort klasse B driving license class B
    plan B plan B
  3. the second highest grade in a school or university using the A-F scale
    • 2019, Helene Uri, Stillheten etterpå, page 14:
      jeg har gode karakterer. Bare A-er og B-er
      I have good grades. Only A's and B's
    få B til eksamen
    receive an B on an exam
  4. (music) the tone h lowered by half a step
    • 1944, Børre Qvamme, Musikk, page 35–36:
      enhver tone er mangetydig, fiss er også gess, diss er ess, b er aiss og så videre
      every tone is ambiguous, fiss is also gess, diss is ace, b is aiss and so on
    • 2000, Bjørnar Pedersen og Egil Birkeland, Hillman Hunter:
      skotske sekkepiper stemmes i B
      Scottish bagpipes are tuned in B
    B-dur og B-moll
    B major and B minor
    stemt i B tuned so that a C on the instrument sounds like B in the normal scale
  5. (music) a B-flat (sign indicating that the following note is to be lowered by half a step)
    • 1974, Jens Bjørneboe, Haiene, page 98:
      ingen vil påstå at notebladet med nøkler, kryss og b’er er selve musikken
      no one will claim that the sheet music with keys, crosses and bs is the music itself
  6. Abbreviation of bass (bass).
  7. (physics) symbol for bel (“bel”)
  8. (chemistry) symbol for bor (“boron”)

References

Anagrams


Nupe

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


Polish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bɛ/

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The third letter of the Polish alphabet, called be and written in the Latin script.

See also

Further reading

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

Portuguese

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


Romani

Pronunciation

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also


Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /b/

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The fourth letter of the Romanian alphabet, called be or and written in the Latin script.
See also

Proper noun

B

  1. Abbreviation of București, the capital city of Romania.

Saanich

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pʼ/

Letter

B

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

See also


Skolt Sami

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /b/

Letter

B (lower case b)

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

See also


Slovene

Etymology

From Gaj's Latin alphabet B, from Czech alphabet B, from the Etruscan letter 𐌁 (b, be), from the Ancient Greek letter Β (B, beta), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤁 (b, bet), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓉐. Pronunciation as /bə/ is initial Slovene (phoneme plus a fill vowel) and the second pronunciation is probably taken from German B.

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/, [p], [b̪]
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /bə́/, /bèː/, /béː/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: , -eː

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

Symbol

B

  1. (SNPT, not allowed to be in lower case) Phonetic transcription of sound [].

Noun

B m inan

  1. The name of the Latin script letter B / b.

Inflection

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

Derived terms

  • od A do B

See also

Further reading

  • B”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran

Somali

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ba/

Letter

B upper case (lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Somali alphabet, called ba and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

The second letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows the Arabic abjad order. It is preceded by ' and followed by T.

See also


Spanish

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Spanish alphabet, called be and written in the Latin script.

Derived terms

See also


Swedish

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. the second letter of the Swedish alphabet

Symbol

B

  1. (SAB) general and miscellaneous
    Meronyms: Ba, Bb, Bd, Be, Bf, Bg, Bh, Bi, Bk, Bl, Br, Bs, Bt, Bu, Bv
  2. (zoning) Area reserved for bostäder (residential etc.).
    Holonym: kvartersmark

Adjective

B

  1. indication of being of lesser rank, less successful
    Antonym: A
  2. indication of being boring
    Synonym: tråkigt

Derived terms

  • B-aktie (“class B share”)
  • B-lag (“second raters”)

Noun

B

  1. an academic grade, better than a C and worse than an A
    Coordinate terms: A, B, C, D, E

Turkish

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Turkish alphabet, called be and written in the Latin script.

See also


Vietnamese

Pronunciation

  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔɓe˧˧], [ʔɓe˧˧ ʔɓɔ˨˩], [ʔɓəː˨˩]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɓej˧˧], [ʔɓej˧˧ ʔɓɔ˦˩], [ʔɓəː˦˩]
  • (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [ʔɓej˧˧], [ʔɓej˧˧ ʔɓɔ˨˩], [ʔɓəː˨˩]
  • Phonetic: bê, bê bò, bờ

Letter

B (lower case b)

  1. The fourth letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, called , bê bò, or bờ and written in the Latin script.

See also


Welsh

Pronunciation

  • (standard) IPA(key): /biː/
    • (informal) IPA(key): /bə/

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Welsh alphabet, called bi and written in the Latin script. It is preceded by A and followed by C.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radicalsoftnasalaspirate
Bangor Fangor Mangor unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

See also

Further reading

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

Yoruba

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /b/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /bí/

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

  1. The second letter of the Yoruba alphabet, called and written in the Latin script.

See also


Zulu

Letter

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

See also

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