Z

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Z 26th and last letter of the English alphabet and a letter also included in the alphabets of many other w European languages. It is derived from the Semitic letter zayin, which passed into Greek as zeta where it was given its present form. It was higher up the order in these alphabets (6th or 7th) and was not needed by the Romans until they began to use Greek words in the 2nd century ad, at which time they added it as the last letter of their alphabet. In English z is a consonant, usually pronounced as a voiced counterpart of s, as in zoo. Phoneticians refer to this consonant as a voiced alveolar fricative. The same letter represents a palatal form of this sound (zh), in such words as seizure, azure.

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