Dictionary
the ending of a series or sequence "the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end"--Revelation the 26th letter of the Roman alphabet "the British call Z zed and the Scots call it ezed but Americans call it zee" "he doesn't know A from izzard"
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Wikipedia
Z lc=z IPA notice Z is the twenty-sixth and last letter of the English languageEnglish alphabet.In almost all forms of Commonwealth English, the letter is named zed, reflecting its derivation from the Greek alphabetGreek ''zeta (letter)zeta'' (see below). Other European languages use a similar form, e.g. the French languageFrench ''zède'', Spanish languageSpanish and Italian languageItalian ''zeta''. The American English form zee derives from an English late 17th-century dialectal form, now obsolete in England. Another English dialectal form is izzard, which dates from the mid 18th-century, probably deriving from French ''et zède'' meaning ''and z'', or else from ''s hard''.In early Latin the sound represented by ''Z'' passed into ''R'', and consequently the symbol became useless. It was therefore removed from the alphabet and ''G'' was put in its place. In the 1st century BC it was, like ''Y'', introduced again at the end, in order to represent more precisely than was before possible the value of the Greek ''Z'' or ''zeta'', which had been previously spelled with ''S'' at the beginning and ''ss'' in the middle of words: ''sona'' = ζωνη, "belt"; ''trapessita'' = !τραπε ζιτης ,? "banker". Until recent times the English alphabets used by children terminated not with ''Z'' but with ''Ampersand&'' or related typographic symbols. George Eliot refers to the ''Z''s being followed by ''&'' when she makes Jacob Storey say, "He thought it Z had only been put to finish off th' alphabet like; though ampusand would ha' done as well, for what he could see." The Greek form of Z was a close copy of the Phoenician symbol I, and the Greek inscriptional form remained in this shape throughout. In Semitic (Zayin) and Ancient Greek the letter was probably pronounced as "dz">dz (as in Italian ''zeta'', ''zero'').In Modern Greek, it is pronounced as "z">z , as in English and French.The name of the Semitic symbol was Zayin, but this name, for some unknown reason, was not adopted by the Greeks, who called it Zeta. Whether, as seems most likely, ''Zeta'' was the name of one of the other Semitic sibilants — Tsade — transferred to this by mistake, or whether the name is a new one, made in imitation of ''Eta'' (η) and Theta (θ), is disputed. The pronunciation of the Semitic letter was the voiced ''S'' (International Phonetic AlphabetIPA "z">z ), like the ordinary use of ''Z'' in English, as in ''zodiac'', ''raze''. It is probable that in Greek there was a considerable variety of pronunciation from dialect to dialect. In the earlier Greek of Athens, Northwest Greece and Lesbos the pronunciation seems to have been ''zd''; in Attic from the 4th century BC onwards it seems to have been only a voiced ''s'', and this also was probably the pronunciation of the dialect from which Latin borrowed its Greek words. In other dialects, as Elean and CreteCretan, the symbol was apparently used for sounds resembling the English voiced and unvoiced ''th'' (IPA "θ">θ and "ð">ð respectively). In the common dialect !(κοιν&et a;)? which succeeded the older dialects, ζ became a voiced ''s'' (IPA "z">z ), as it remains in modern Greek. In Etruscan, ''Z'' probably symbolized "ts">ts , in Latin, "dz">dz (in Latin, the letter appeared only in Greek words, and ''Z'' is the only letter besides ''Y'' that the Romans took over directly from the Greek, and unlike all other letters not via Etruscan).In Vulgar Latin the Greek ''Z'' seems to have been pronounced as dy (IPA "dj">dj ) and later y (IPA "j">j ); di being found for ''Z'' in words like ''baptidiare'' for ''baptizare'' "baptize", while conversely ''Z'' appears for di in forms like ''zaconus'', ''zabulus'', for ''diaconus'' "deacon", ''diabulus'', "devil". ''Z'' also is often written for the consonantal ''I'' (that is, ''J'', IPA "j">j ) as in ''zunior'' for ''junior'' "younger". In Italian, ''Z'' represents two phonemes, namely "ts">ts and "dz">dz ; in German, it stands for "ts">ts ; in Castilian Spanish languageSpanish it represents "θ">θ (as English ''th'' in ''thing''), though in other dialects (Latin American, Andalusian) it is pronounced as "s">s (and word-finally, "s">s , "x">x , "h">h or Ø), making ''haz'', ''has'' and even ''ha'' homophones.Besides the above Latin forms, there was a more cultured Vulgate pronunciation of ''Z'' as "dz">dz , which passed through French into Middle English. The International Phonetic Alphabet uses "z">z for the voiced alveolar fricativevoiced alveolar sibilant. Early English had used ''S'' alone for both the unvoiced and the voiced sibilant; the Latin sound imported through French was new and was not written with ''Z'' but with ''G'' or ''I''. The successive changes can be well seen in the double forms from the same original, ''jealous'' and ''zealous''. Both of these come from a late Latin ''zelosus'', derived from the imported Greek !ζηλο&s igmaf;.? Much the earlier form is ''jealous''; its initial sound is the "dʒ">dʒ which in later French is changed to "dʒ">dʒ . It is written ''gelows'' or ''iclous'' by Wycliffe and his contemporaries; the form with ''I'' is the ancestor of the modern form. At the end of words this ''Z'' was pronounced ''ts'' as in the English ''assets'', which comes from a late Latin ''ad satis'' through an early French ''assez'' "enough". See English plural.''Z'' is also frequently used in English to represent written ''zh'' (IPA "ʒ">ʒ ), in ''azure'', ''seizure''. But this sound appears even more frequently as ''s-before-u'', and as ''si'' before other vowels as in ''measure'', ''decision'', etc., or in foreign words as ''G'', as in ''rouge''. For the "inverted ε" (''Ȝ'') representing ''G'' and ''Y'' in Scottish proper names, see Yogh.No words in the Basic English vocabulary begin with Z, but it occurs in words beginning with other letters.(See IPA chart for English for the meaning of all the above phonetic symbols.)In Shakespeare's King Lear Z is used as an insult. A character is called "Thou whoreson zed! Thou unnecessary letter!" (II.ii), intimating that Z (in Shakespearean English at any rate) is a useless letter, like the person on the receiving end of the insult.
Alternative representations - Zulu represents the letter Z in the NATO phonetic alphabet.In Morse codeinternational Morse code the letter Z is DahDahDitDit: !- - ·&nbs p;·In? Braille the letter Z is represented as !⠵X..XXX
Computing - In Unicode the majusculecapital Z is codepoint U+005A and the minusculelowercase z is U+007A.The ASCII code for capital Z is 90 and for lowercase z is 122; or in Binary numeral systembinary 01011010 and 01111010, correspondingly.The EBCDIC code for capital Z is 233 and for lowercase z is 169.The numeric character references in HTML and XML are !"Z"? and !"z< /tt>"? for upper and lower case respectively
Meanings for Z - In mathematics, * Blackboard bold denotes the set of all integerintegers.* ''z'' represents the third unknown quantity (after ''x'' and ''y'').* ''z'' denotes a complex number complex variable. In cartoons, Z denotes the sound of sleeping or snoring, often represented as "zzz...". In chemistry, Z is the symbol for atomic number. In computer science, Z is a formal specification language used for computing systems; see Z notation. In date and time, Z UTC timezone. In film and literature, *''Z (film)Z'' is a film by Costa-Gavras*Z is the lead character (Z or Zed) in the filmmovie ''Zardoz''.*Z is the protagonist in ''Antz''.*''Z'' is the mark of Zorro.*''Z'' is the nickname of Zefram Cochrane in ''Star Trek: First Contact''.*Zee is the love interest of the character Link in ''The Matrix Reloaded'' and ''The Matrix Revolutions'' movies.*Zed is a character in the movie ''Pulp Fiction''.*Zed is a character in the ''Police Academy'' series.*Zed is a character in the motion picture ''Men in Black (movie)Men in Black''. In television, Zed (television)Zed is an "open source" television show where users can contribute arts and entertainment submissions online, which may be broadcast on the CBC in Canada. zed.cbc.ca* ''Lord Zedd'' is a fictional villain from the TV series ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers''.* ''Zed'' was a fictional robot in ''The Ed and Zed Show'' In genetics Z denotes the WZ sex-determination systemZ chromosome.* ZZ denotes male in the WZ sex-determination system. In List of international license plate codesinternational licence plate codes, Z stands for Zambia. In the SI system, *z, zepto, is an SI prefix meaning !10-21.< li>*Z, zetta, is an SI prefix meaning !1021. In military science, Z refers to the zero-meridian time zone UTC or GMT, leading to the expression "zulu time".In music, Zed (band)Zed is a band from New Zealand In physics:* In particle physics, Z is the symbol for the W and Z bosonsZ boson.* In electrical engineering, ''Z'' is the variable for impedance. In set theory, Z is the name of a system with Zermelo's first five axioms plus foundation. In video games, ''Z'' is:* the name of a strategy game for Personal computerPC and the PlayStation.* Naoki Maeda's pseudonym for the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' song "MAXX UNLIMITED". Fans typically pronounce this "zeta" since his pseudonym for its predecessor, "MAX 300", is Ω (omega).** Naoki's pseudonym for the ''DDR'' song "The legend of MAX" consists of ΖΖZ Communications is a politically progressive left-wing, journalism-intensive, media group, founded in 1987 by Michael Albert. The letter ''Z'' followed by a question mark: Z?, is often found in various works by Jhonen Vasquez. It originates from comic Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, where he talks about "Questioning Sleep". Hence, "Z?" means "Question Sleep".
See also - Ž Ź Ż
External links - chass.utoronto.ca - "Zee" versus "Zed" in the southern Ontario Public School SystemAZsubnav Category:Latin !lettersaf:Zbs:Zca:Zsn:Zcs:Zda: Zde:Zel:Zals:Zes:Zeo:Zfr:Zgl:Z hr:Zit:Zkw:Zla:Znl:Zja:Zno:Znn :Zpl:Zpt:Zro:Zru:Zsimple:Zsl:Z fi:Zsv:Zvi:Zyo:Zzh:Z
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Websites
UbiMathPoint
Math resources for K12 and teachers. Papers, tests on line and exercises with solutions.
http://www.pernigo.com/math/default.aspx
Health A to Z: The Source For Health and Medicine
Portal site presents introductory level to Alternative Medicine and Chinese Medicine from Western doctors' point of view. Search engine is useful for the links it provides regarding aspects Acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and Wellness Centers.
http://www.healthatoz.com/
ZNet
Comprehensive progressive analysis and action site. One of its main focuses is the US' (and its allies) overwhelming dominance on the world scene, and the US' flagrant abuses of human rights and international law.
http://www.zmag.org/
A-to-Z Teacher Stuff
Online lesson plans, thematic units, teacher tips, discussion boards, educational articles & sites, book and literature activities.
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/
Dragon Ball Z
The Official site from FUNimation. Contains character information, episode summaries, and Club Z.
http://www.dragonballz.com/
La-Z-Boy
Corporate site for La-Z-Boy home furnishings. Provides descriptions and photos of products, company history and financial information, store locator, and decorating aids.
http://www.lazboy.com/
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