M, or m, is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of several western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em (pronounced ), plural ems.
AI overview
M (or m) is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet and is used in English and many other languages around the world. It matters because it is a fundamental building block of written communication, allowing people to spell and write words in these languages.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Grapheme.name
- M
- Grapheme.letter
- M m
- Grapheme.script
- Latin script
- Grapheme.type
- Alphabet
- Grapheme.typedesc
- ic and Logographic
- Grapheme.language
- Latin language
- Grapheme.unicode
- U+004D, U+006D
- Grapheme.alphanumber
- 13
- Grapheme.number
- 1000
- Grapheme.fam1
- N35
- Grapheme.fam2
- class=skin-invert-image|20px|Maym
- Grapheme.fam3
- class=skin-invert-image|20px|Phoenician Mem
- Grapheme.fam4
Article
16 sectionsContents
- History
- Use in writing systems
- English
- Other languages
- Other systems
- Other uses
- Related characters
- Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
- Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
- Ligatures and abbreviations
- Other representations
- Computing <span class="anchor" id="Computing codes"></span>
- Other
- Notes
- References
- External links
M, or m, is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of several western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em (pronounced ), plural ems.
==History== {| class="wikitable" ! Egyptian hieroglyph"n" ! PhoenicianMem ! Western GreekMu ! EtruscanM ! LatinM |--- align=center |n | class=skin-invert-image|25x25px | class=skin-invert-image|35px | class=skin-invert-image|25px | class=skin-invert-image|x30px|Latin M |} The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem via the Greek Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a "Proto-Sinaitic" (Bronze Age) adoption of the "water" ideogram in Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the acrophonic value , from the Egyptian word for "water", nt; the adoption as the Semitic letter for was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic word for "water", *mā(y)-.