Z (letter)

Z is the twenty-sixth and last letter of the English alphabet. Its name is zed in British English and zee in American.

Use in English

Z is a buzzing sound (which is actually more usually encountered as final s in hís, stŏries, dógs, hánds, líves, lîves). Examples (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes): zíp, Azerbaijàn, quíz, púzzle, hâzy.

It is often doubled, especially at the end of monosyllables: fízz, búzz, whízz, jázz, fúzz and thus before certain endings: fízzle, dázzle, nózzle, embézzle, búzzer, búzzing, whízzed, jázzy, fúzzy. There is no clear rule about doubling it: it is always doubled before -er as in búzzer, and also in búzzard and blízzard, but not in házard, lízard or wízard.

Winston Churchill used the simple z sound in Nàzi, presumably to show contempt for the German language: in English it is usually pronounced *nàhtsêe (cf. BrE nàsty), the preceding t making z unvoiced, a hiss; this is heard in other words from German such as quårtz (*kwŏrts) and Kátz person (= cáts animals) while in wåltz (*wålse) the t is silent. This ts is also the sound of zz in Italian words: pìzza (*pêetsə), piázza (*piátsə).

In ázure z can sound like z + y + û, but more often is heard with the zh sound - which is actually written as such in foreign - especially Russian - words: Brézhnev - but is more often written s before i or u: vísion, lêsion, pléasure, méasure, Âsian.

At the end of a word with silent e, s is more common: nôse, nŏise, clôse shut, phâse, plêase (cf. crêase, grêase, which have the hissing s sound). But: frêeze, frôze, mâze, dâze, crâze, glâze, dòze sleep (cf. dôse quantity, unvoiced s).

As noted in the section on s, most words ending in -îse can also be spelt -îze: émphasise or émphasize; but since -îze is never found in advîse, ádvertise, comprîse, cómpromise, despîse, éxercise, surmîse, or surprîse (*surprîze appears as late as Jane Austen, but no later) it seems wiser and easier to spell them all -îse.

z does not begin clusters, so for example there is no zd- equivalent of st- as in some languages: s is used instead, as in mesméric.

There are redundant French z’s in lâissèz-fãire (*lày-sày-fãir) and rendezvous (*róndâyvoô).

See also

• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing