C

Latin alphabet
	A	B	C	D
E	F	G	H	I	J
K	L	M	N	O	P
Q	R	S	T	U	V
	W	X	Y	Z

C is the third letter of the Roman alphabet.

In the Etruscan language, plosive consonants had no distinctive voicing, so they took over Greek &Gamma (Gamma) to write their /k/. In the beginning, the Romans used C for both /k/ and /g/, only later adding a horizontal bar at right-center to produce G. It is possible but uncertain that C represented only /g/ at an even earlier time, while K might have been used for /k/.

Some scholars claim that the Semitic ג (gÃÂÃÂ®mel) pictured a camel. /k/ developed palatal and velar allophones in Latin, probably due to Etruscan influence. Therefore, C has many different sound values today, among them /k/ and /s/ in French, /k/ and /T/ (like English TH in THIN) in European Castilian, /T/ in Fijian, /k/ and /tS/ (like English CH) in Italian, /dZ/ in Turkish, Tatar, Azeri; /ts/ in Czech, Esperanto and so on.

As a phonetic symbol, lowercase [c] is the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal plosive, and capital [C] is the X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal fricative.

Charlie represents the letter C in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

Meanings for C

In business, C is a "creation" initial. It is used for the company name etc. in many Japanese companies.
In chemistry, C is the symbol for carbon (in biochemistry C is also the symbol for cysteine).
In communication, c is an abbreviation for the word "see" in SMS or instant message.
In computing, C denotes the C programming language or its derivatives C++, Objective-C, and C#.
In currency, c with a vertical bar through it (ÃÂÃÂ¢), is the symbol for cent.
In education, C is an average grade.
In electrical engineering,
- C is the control grid bias power supply (originally a battery) of vacuum tube circuitry.
- C is the variable for capacitance.
- C is a standard size of dry-cell battery.
In financial securities, C is the stock symbol for Citigroup.
In geometry, c is the length of a hypotenuse on a right-angled triangle when using the formula a² + b² = c².
In history, c is an abbreviation for circa. When used with years, it means about (e.g., "c. 1500" means around the year 1500).
In international licence plate codes, C stands for Cuba.
In mathematics,
- C is often used as a digit meaning twelve in hexadecimal and other positional numeral systems with a radix of 13 or greater.
- Blackboard bold denotes the set of complex numbers
- C with indices denotes the number of combinations, a binomial coefficient.
In the Metric system,
- c, centi, is an SI prefix meaning 1/100.
- C is the symbol for coulomb, the SI derived unit for electric charge.
- °C is the symbol for degrees Celsius.
In music, C is a note; see also Middle C
In nutrition, C is a vitamin; see Vitamin C
In physics, c is the speed of light.
In rail transport, C is the UIC classification for the railroad locomotive wheel arrangement known as 0-6-0 in the Whyte notation; a locomotive with three powered axles (and thus six wheels) in which the axles are linked by gearing or side rods.
In Roman numerals, C denotes one hundred (centum in Latin).