Z (letter)

Z, z is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the twenty-sixth and last letter of most variants, being placed after Y, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈzed] in British English and [ˈziː] in American, and these are sometimes spelt zed and zee.

A lower case z is the symbol for redshift.

Use in English

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Use in English
Alphabetical word list
Retroalphabetical list
Common misspellings

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z is a buzzing sound (which in English is actually more usually encountered as final s in words like hís, stŏries, dógs, hánds, líves, lîves). Examples (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English spellings): 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 (*nàtsy, cf. BrE nàsty), the preceding t sound 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 often silent.

This -ts- is also the sound of zz in words from Italian: pìzza (*pêetsə), piázza (*piátsə), paparázzi (*paparátsy), pizzicàto (*pitsicàto). And of the single z in (sk-) schízo-: schízoid, schizophrênia (*skitsəfrênia).

In ázure, z can sound like z plus semi-consonantal y plus 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).

Most words ending in -îse can also be spelt -îze (and are always so spelt in AmE): émphasise or émphasize; but -îze is never found in advîse, ádvertise, comprîse, cómpromise, despîse, éxercise, surmîse, or surprîse—though Jane Austen spells it *surprîze.

z does not begin clusters; s is used instead, as in mesméric mézm-.

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

In some Scottish words z is pronounced as y: tâilzie, capercâilzie; this y sound in turn is sometimes slurred out of existence: *tâil(y)ee, *cápper-câil(y)ee. More regular pronunciations also exist (and, in the case of capercâillie, spelling).

In BrE, z is sometimes pronounced as unvoiced th in Spanish words such as Ibìza, to mimic local pronunciation, instead of an or z, or, as a compromise, s sound.

Scientific uses

• Z: impedance
• z: generic symbol for a complex number