B

From the Ancient Greek letter Β (B, “Beta”).

B (lower case b)

1. The second letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

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/).

• (Latin script):  Aa  Bb  Cc  Dd  Ee  Ff  Gg  Hh  Ii  Jj  Kk  Ll  Mm  Nn  Oo  Pp  Qq  Rr  Sſs  Tt  Uu  Vv  Ww  Xx  Yy  Zz
• (Variations of letter B):  Ḃḃ  Ḅḅ  Ḇḇ  Ƀƀ  Ɓɓ  Ƃƃ  ᵬ  ᶀ  ʙ  Ｂｂ  ȸ  ℔  Ꞗꞗ
• For more variations, see Appendix:Variations of "b".
• (other scripts) Β (B, “Beta”), Б (B, “Be”), В (V, “Ve”), ב‎ (b, “beth”)

• (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}

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 symbol for 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.

   1. (computing) Hexadecimal symbol for eleven.
4. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for either glutamine or glutamic acid
5. (physics) magnetic field

• Letter styles
• 
  Capital and lowercase versions of B, in normal and italic type
• 
  Uppercase and lowercase B in Fraktur
• 
  B in uncial script

Other representations of B:

• B on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /b/
• (letter name) IPA^(key): /biː/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iː

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 ᛒ (B, “beorc”).

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.
   • 1945 August 17, George Orwell, chapter 3, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, D, in the dust with his great hoof […]

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.

• (Latin-script letters) letter; A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

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.

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

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

• (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

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 it's B characters for the spinoff.

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.

• B-side
• B story
• plan B

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.

B

1. (computing) byte

• (computing): Bps, B/s
• (computing): kB, MB, GB, TB, PB, EB

• (computing): b (bit)

B

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

B

1. The second letter in the Afar alphabet.

• (Latin-script letters) A a, B b, T t, S s, E e, C c, K k, X x, I i, D d, Q q, R r, F f, G g, O o, L l, M m, N n, U u, W w, H h, Y y

• (thumb unopposed and flat against the radial edge of the palm, used in rapid fingerspelling of words like B-A-B-Y) FlatB

French Sign Language letter b

From French Sign Language sign for the letter B.

This one-handed ASL sign is produced as follows:

• Posture the dominant hand in the “B” handshape .

(transliteration needed) (Stokoe B)

1. The letter B

• Index:American Sign Language/B

B upper case (lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) hərf; A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, Ə ə, F f, G g, Ğ ğ, H h, X x, I ı, İ i, J j, K k, Q q, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ö ö, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ü ü, V v, Y y, Z z

B

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

• (Latin-script letters) A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, Ng ng, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, Sy sy, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

• IPA^(key): /be/

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) lletra; A a, À à, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, É é, È è, F f, G g, H h, I i, Í í, Ï ï, J j, K k, L l (L·L l·l), M m, N n, O o, Ó ó, Ò ò, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, Ú ú, Ü ü, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

• IPA^(key): /beː/

B

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

• (Latin-script letters) písmeno; A a, Á á, B b, C c, Č č, D d, Ď ď, E e, É é, Ě ě, F f, G g, H h, Ch ch, I i, Í í, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, Ň ň, O o, Ó ó, P p, Q q, R r, Ř ř, S s, Š š, T t, Ť ť, U u, Ú ú, Ů ů, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Ý ý, Z z, Ž ž

B

1. (music) B flat

• IPA^(key): /beː/

• Audio

  (file)

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) letter; A a (Á á, Ä ä), B b, C c, D d, E e (É é, Ë ë), F f, G g, H h, I i (Í í, Ï ï, IJ ij), J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o (Ó ó, Ö ö), P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u (Ú ú, Ü ü), V v, W w, X x, Y y (Ý ý), Z z

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /bo/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /b/

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) litero; A a, B b, C c, Ĉ ĉ, D d, E e, F f, G g, Ĝ ĝ, H h, Ĥ ĥ, I i, J j, Ĵ ĵ, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, R r, S s, Ŝ ŝ, T t, U u, Ŭ ŭ, V v, Z z

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• Used only in loanwords.

• (Latin-script letters) kirjain; A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s (Š š), T t, U u, V v (W w), X x, Y y, Z z (Ž ž), Å å, Ä ä, Ö ö

B

1. lubenter approbatur

• IPA^(key): /beː/

• Audio

  (file)

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) Buchstabe; A a (Ä ä), B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o (Ö ö), P p, Q q, R r, S s (ẞ ß), T t, U u (Ü ü), V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

B n (genitive B, no plural)

1. (music) B-flat

• H (“B (musical note)”)

Related to the French Sign Language sign for "B".

This one-handed GSL sign is produced as follows:

• Posture the dominant hand in the “B” shape.

(transliteration needed)

1. the letter B

• IPA^(key): /b/

B (lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) litero; A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

• (letter name) IPA^(key): /bi/
• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /b/

B m or f (lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) lettera; A a (À à), B b, C c, D d, E e (É é, È è), F f, G g, H h, I i (Í í, Ì ì, Πî, J j, K k), L l, M m, N n, O o (Ó ó, Ò ò), P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u (Ú ú, Ù ù), V v (W w, X x, Y y), Z z
• Italian alphabet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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.

• IPA^(key): [b]

• Audio

  (file)

B

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• Letters of the Latvian alphabet:

  burti: Aa, Āā, Bb, Cc, Čč, Dd, Ee, Ēē, Ff, Gg, Ģģ, Hh, Ii, Īī, Jj, Kk, Ķķ, Ll, Ļļ, Mm, Nn, Ņņ, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Šš, Tt, Uu, Ūū, Vv, Zz, Žž

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

B

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

• (Latin-script letters) A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) ittra; A a, B b, Ċ ċ, D d, E e, F f, Ġ ġ, G g, Għ għ, H h, Ħ ħ, I i, Ie ie, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Ż ż, Z z

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) letra; A a (Á á, À à,  â, àã), B b, C c (Ç ç), D d, E e (É é, Ê ê), F f, G g, H h, I i (Í í), J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o (Ó ó, Ô ô, Õ õ), P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u (Ú ú), V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

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

B (upper case, lower case b)

1. The letter be, the fourth letter of the Romanian alphabet.

• (Latin-script letters) A a, Ă ă,  â, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, Πî, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, Ș ș, T t, Ț ț, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

• IPA^(key): /pʼ/

B

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

• (Latin-script letters) A, Á, Ⱥ, B, C, Ć, Ȼ, D, E, H, I, Í, J, K, Ꝁ, Ꝃ, ₭, Ḵ, Ḱ, L, Ƚ, M, N, Ṉ, O, P, Q, S, Ś, T, Ⱦ, Ṯ, Ŧ, U, W, W̲, X, X̲, Y, Z, s, ,

• (phoneme) IPA^(key): /b/

B (lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) bukva; A a,  â, B b, C c, Č č, Ʒ ʒ, Ǯ ǯ, D d, Đ đ, E e, F f, G g, Ǧ ǧ, Ǥ ǥ, H h, I i, J j, K k, Ǩ ǩ, L l, M m, N n, Ŋ ŋ, O o, Õ õ, P p, R r, S s, Š š, T t, U u, V v, Z z, Ž ž, Å å, Ä ä, ʹ

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) čŕka; A a, B b, C c, Č č, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, R r, S s, Š š, T t, U u, V v, Z z, Ž ž

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

B upper case (lower case b)

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

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

• (Latin-script letters) ', B b, T t, J j, X x, Kh kh, D d, R r, S s, Sh sh, Dh dh, C c, G g, F f, Q q, K k, L l, M m, N n, W w, H h, Y y, A a, E e, I i, O o, U u

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) letra; A a (Á á), B b, C c, D d, E e (É é), F f, G g, H h, I i (Í í), J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, Ñ ñ, O o (Ó ó), P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u (Ú ú, Ü ü), V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) harf; A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, F f, G g, Ğ ğ, H h, I ı, İ i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ö ö, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ü ü, V v, Y y, Z z

• (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

B (lower case b)

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

• (Quốc ngữ letters) chữ; A a (À à, Ả ả, àã, Á á, Ạ ạ), Ă ă (Ằ ằ, Ẳ ẳ, Ẵ ẵ, Ắ ắ, Ặ ặ),  â (Ầ ầ, Ẩ ẩ, Ẫ ẫ, Ấ ấ, Ậ ậ), B b, C c (Ch ch), D d, Đ đ, E e (È è, Ẻ ẻ, Ẽ ẽ, É é, Ẹ ẹ), Ê ê (Ề ề, Ể ể, Ễ ễ, Ế ế, Ệ ệ), G g (Gh gh, Gi gi), H h, I i (Ì ì, Ỉ ỉ, Ĩ ĩ, Í í, Ị ị), K k (Kh kh), L l, M m, N n (Ng ng, Ngh ngh, Nh nh), O o (Ò ò, Ỏ ỏ, Õ õ, Ó ó, Ọ ọ), Ô ô (Ồ ồ, Ổ ổ, Ỗ ỗ, Ố ố, Ộ ộ), Ơ ơ (Ờ ờ, Ở ở, Ỡ ỡ, Ớ ớ, Ợ ợ), P p (Ph ph), Q q (Qu qu), R r, S s, T t (Th th, Tr tr), U u (Ù ù, Ủ ủ, Ũ ũ, Ú ú, Ụ ụ), Ư ư (Ừ ừ, Ử ử, Ữ ữ, Ứ ứ, Ự ự), V v, X x, Y y (Ỳ ỳ, Ỷ ỷ, Ỹ ỹ, Ý ý, Ỵ ỵ)

B (upper case, lower case b)

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

• (Latin-script letters) A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z