An "alphabet" is the complete collection of written characters of a language, presented in a regular order. The term is a compound word formed by a combination of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, "alpha" and "beta." These are the first two letters in the alphabets of many languages that have been influenced by Greek or Latin. Most alphabets have about 25 sounds for which distinct written characters are provided. English has 26 letters; Greek has 24.

The chart below shows the Greek alphabet in capitals and lower case. For the corresponding English letters, see the chart on the transliteration page.