D

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For other uses, see D (disambiguation).

For the emoticon :D, see Emoticon. (For technical reasons, :D takes you here.)

Look up D, d in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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

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D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. In the English language, it is pronounced dee (IPA /diː/).

[edit] History

Egyptian hieroglyph
door

Proto-Semitic
D

Phoenician
D

Etruscan
D

Greek
Delta

Roman
D

The Semitic letter Dâlet probably developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek, and Latin, the letter was pronounced /d/; in the Etruscan alphabet the letter was superfluous, but still maintained (see letter B). Greek letter: Δ (capital) or δ (small) (Delta).

The minuscule (lower-case) form of D, consists of a loop and a tall vertical stroke. It developed by gradual variations on the majuscule (capital) form. In handwriting it was common to start the arc to the left of the vertical stroke, resulting in a serif at the top of the arc. This serif was extended while the rest of the letter was reduced, resulting in an angled stroke and loop. The angled stroke slowly developed into a vertical stroke.

Alternative representations of D

NATO phonetic		Morse code
Delta		-··

Signal flag	Semaphore	ASL Manual	Braille

[edit] Meanings of D

See D (disambiguation).