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E, or e, is the fifth
letter Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
and the second
vowel letter A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (l ...
in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plural ''ees'', ''Es'' or ''E's''. It is the most commonly used letter in many languages, including
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech ...
,
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
, Dutch,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
,
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, Hungarian, Latin, Latvian, Norwegian,
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, and Swedish.


History

The Latin letter 'E' differs little from its source, the Greek letter epsilon, 'Ε'. This in turn comes from the Semitic letter '' '', which has been suggested to have started as a praying or calling human figure ('' hillul'' 'jubilation'), and was most likely based on a similar Egyptian hieroglyph that indicated a different pronunciation. In Semitic, the letter represented (and in foreign words); in Greek, ''hê'' became the letter epsilon, used to represent . The various forms of the
Old Italic script The Old Italic scripts are a family of similar ancient writing systems used in the Italian Peninsula between about 700 and 100 BC, for various languages spoken in that time and place. The most notable member is the Etruscan alphabet, which ...
and the Latin alphabet followed this usage.


Use in writing systems


English

Although Middle English spelling used to represent long and short , the Great Vowel Shift changed long (as in 'me' or 'bee') to while short (as in 'met' or 'bed') remained a mid vowel. In other cases, the letter is silent, generally at the end of words like queue.


Other languages

In the orthography of many languages it represents either , , , or some variation (such as a nasalized version) of these sounds, often with diacritics (as: ) to indicate contrasts. Less commonly, as in French, German, or Saanich, represents a
mid-central vowel The mid central vowel (also known as schwa) is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter e. While the ''Handbook of the I ...
. Digraphs with are common to indicate either
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
s or monophthongs, such as or for or in English, for in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, and for in
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
or in German.


Other systems

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses for the
close-mid front unrounded vowel The close-mid front unrounded vowel, or high-mid front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . For the close-mid front unrounde ...
or the mid front unrounded vowel.


Most common letter

'E' is the most common (or highest- frequency) letter in the English language alphabet (starting off the typographer's phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU) and several other European languages, which has implications in both
cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adve ...
and data compression. In the story " The Gold-Bug" by Edgar Allan Poe, a character figures out a random character code by remembering that the most used letter in English is E. This makes it a hard and popular letter to use when writing lipograms. Ernest Vincent Wright's '' Gadsby'' (1939) is considered a "dreadful" novel, and supposedly "at least part of Wright's narrative issues were caused by language limitations imposed by the lack of ''E''." Both Georges Perec's novel ''
A Void ''A Void'', translated from the original French ( "The Disappearance"), is a 300-page French lipogrammatic novel, written in 1969 by Georges Perec, entirely without using the letter '' e'', following Oulipo constraints. Translations It was tr ...
'' (''La Disparition'') (1969) and its English translation by Gilbert Adair omit 'e' and are considered better works.


Related characters


Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

* E with diacritics: Ĕ ĕ Ḝ ḝ Ȇ ȇ Ê ê Ê̄ ê̄ Ê̌ ê̌ Ề ề Ế ế Ể ể Ễ ễ Ệ ệ Ẻ ẻ Ḙ ḙ Ě ě Ɇ ɇ Ė ė Ė́ ė́ Ė̃ ė̃ Ẹ ẹ Ë ë È è È̩ è̩ Ȅ ȅ É é É̩ Ē ē Ḕ ḕ Ḗ ḗ Ẽ ẽ Ḛ ḛ Ę ę Ę́ ę́ Ę̃ ę̃ Ȩ ȩ E̩ e̩ * ⱸ : E with notch is used in the
Swedish Dialect Alphabet The Swedish Dialect Alphabet ( sv, Landsmålsalfabetet) is a phonetic alphabet created in 1878 by Johan August Lundell and used for the narrow transcription of Swedish dialects. The initial version of the alphabet consisted of 89 letters, 42 ...
* Æ æ : Latin ''AE'' ligature * Œ œ : Latin ''OE'' ligature * The umlaut diacritic ¨ used above a vowel letter in German and other languages to indicate a fronted or front vowel (this sign originated as a superscript e) * Phonetic alphabet symbols related to E (the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems): ** Ɛ ɛ : Latin letter epsilon / open e, which represents an
open-mid front unrounded vowel The open-mid front unrounded vowel, or low-mid front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is a Latinised variant of the Greek lower ...
in the IPA ** ᶓ : Epsilon / open e with retroflex hook ** Ɜ ɜ : Latin letter reversed epsilon / open e, which represents an open-mid central unrounded vowel in the IPA ** ɝ : Latin small letter reversed epsilon / open e with hook, which represents a rhotacized open-mid central vowel in the IPA ** : Reversed epsilon / open e with retroflex hook ** : Modifier letter small reversed epsilon / open e ** ɞ : Latin small letter closed reversed open e, which represents an
open-mid central rounded vowel The open-mid central rounded vowel, or low-mid central rounded vowel, is a vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is 3\. ...
in IPA (shown as ʚ on the 1993 IPA chart) ** 𐞏 : Modifier letter small closed reversed open e, which is a superscript IPA letter ** Ə ə : Latin letter schwa, which represents a
mid central vowel The mid central vowel (also known as schwa) is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter e. While the ''Handbook of the I ...
in the IPA ** Ǝ ǝ : Latin letter turned e, which is used in the writing systems of some African languages ** ɘ : Latin letter reversed e, which represents a
close-mid central unrounded vowel The close-mid central unrounded vowel, or high-mid central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . This is a mirrored letter e and ...
in the IPA ** 𐞎 : Modifier letter small reversed e, which is a superscript IPA letter * The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of e and epsilon / open e: ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *e : Subscript small e is used in Indo-European studies * Teuthonista phonetic transcription system symbols related to E: ** ** **


Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

* 𐤄 : Semitic letter He (letter), from which the following symbols originally derive ** Ε ε : Greek letter Epsilon, from which the following symbols originally derive *** Е е :
Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = Gr ...
letter Ye *** Є є :
Ukrainian Ye Ukrainian Ye (Є є; italics: ) is a character of the Cyrillic script. It is a separate letter in the Ukrainian alphabet (8th position since 1992, 7th position before then), the Pannonian Rusyn alphabet, and both the Carpathian Rusyn al ...
*** Э э : Cyrillic letter E *** :
Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet, t ...
letter Ei *** 𐌄 : Old Italic E, which is the ancestor of modern Latin E **** :
Runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
letter
Ehwaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark ''e'' rune , meaning "horse" (cognate to Latin , Gaulish , Tocharian B , Sanskrit , Avestan and Old Irish ). In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as (properly , but spelled ...
, which is possibly a descendant of Old Italic E *** :
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
letter eyz


Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

* € : Euro sign. * ℮ :
Estimated sign The estimated sign, , also referred to as the e-mark or () can be found on most prepacked products in the European Union (EU). Its use indicates that the prepackage fulfils EU Directive 76/211/EEC, which specifies the maximum permitted toleranc ...
(used on prepackaged goods for sale within the European Union). * ''e'' : the symbol for the
elementary charge The elementary charge, usually denoted by is the electric charge carried by a single proton or, equivalently, the magnitude of the negative electric charge carried by a single electron, which has charge −1 . This elementary charge is a fundame ...
(the electric charge carried by a single proton) * ∃ : existential quantifier in
predicate logic First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantifi ...
. It is read "there exists ... such that". * ∈ : the symbol for
set membership In mathematics, an element (or member) of a set is any one of the distinct objects that belong to that set. Sets Writing A = \ means that the elements of the set are the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. Sets of elements of , for example \, are subset ...
in set theory. * 𝑒 : the base of the natural logarithm.


Code points

: 1


Other representations

In
British Sign Language British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language among the Deaf community in the UK. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' on ...
(BSL), the letter 'e' is signed by extending the index finger of the right hand touching the tip of index on the left hand, with all fingers of left hand open.


Use as a number

In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, E is a number that corresponds to the number 14 in decimal (base 10) counting.


References


External links

* * * {{Latin script, E} ISO basic Latin letters Vowel letters