A letter is a type of grapheme, which is a contrastive unit in a writing system.

The contemporary
English-language alphabet consists of twenty-six letters, each of which corresponds to one or
more sounds. Letters are combined to form words. A letter is classified as either a consonant or a
vowel, depending on how its sound is produced (vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y and w— with y and w
only sometimes classed as vowels[clarification needed]). The basic Roman alphabet is used by
hundreds of languages around the world.[3]

There are more phonemes in English–about 44–than there are letters of the alphabet.[4] A letter
may therefore be associated with more than one phoneme, with the phoneme determined by
the surrounding letters or etymology of the word. Regional accents have a significant effect; the
letter a can range from five to twelve sounds depending on the origin of the speaker.[5] As an
example of positional effects, the letter c is pronounced [k] before a, o, u, or consonants (e.g.
critical), but is pronounced [s] before e, i, or y (e.g. democracy). Conversely, the same phoneme
may be shared by more than one letter, as shown by the c and s in fence and tense.

A sequence of graphemes representing a phoneme is called a polygraph. A digraph is a case of

polygraphy consisting of two graphemes.[6] Examples of digraphs in English include ch, sh, and
th. A phoneme can also be represented by three letters, called a trigraph[citation needed]. An
example is the combination sch in German.

Specific names are associated with letters, which may differ with language, dialect, and history.
Z, for example, is usually called zed in all English-speaking countries except the US, where it is
named zee. As elements of alphabets, letters have prescribed orders, although this too may vary
by language. In Spanish, for instance, ñ is a separate letter, sorted after n. In English, n and ñ are
classified alike[citation needed].

Letters may also have a numerical or quantitative value. This applies to Roman numerals and the
letters of other writing systems. In English, Arabic numerals are typically used instead of letters.
Greek and Roman letters are used as mathematical symbols in equations and
expressions[citation needed].

People and objects are sometimes named after letters, for one of these reasons:

The letter is an abbreviation, e.g. "G-man" as slang for a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent,
arose as short for "Government Man"

Alphabetical order used as a counting system, e.g. Plan A, Plan B, etc.; alpha ray, beta ray, gamma
ray, etc.

The shape of the letter, e.g. A-clamp, D-ring, F-clamp, G-clamp, H-block, H engine, O-ring, R-clip,
U engine, V engine, Z-drive, a river delta, omega block

Other reasons, e.g. X-ray after "x the unknown" in algebra, because the discoverer did not know
what they were