Prealphabet

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A writing system that was used before an alphabet, or later developed into an alphabet.

    "Our own dearly beloved Anglo Saxons used a very basic prealphabet consisting of 'runes' (straight lines scratched onto wood, bone or stone) called, rather quaintly I think, 'futhorc.'"

Example

More examples

"Our own dearly beloved Anglo Saxons used a very basic prealphabet consisting of 'runes' (straight lines scratched onto wood, bone or stone) called, rather quaintly I think, 'futhorc.'"

Etymology

From pre- + alphabet.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.