What, so now zebra is ebra & zilch is ilch? I give this idea a great big fat zero…or should I say ero? Lol!

why is it that z was remived from the alaphabets

thats so kool

yes ive found a cood definition for the word expressing

ZzzZZZzzZZZzZzzzZ . . . . . .
Cool Letter I didn’t it was obsolete letter already. . . . Who has the power to remove it from the alphabet.how about the word Zoo if letter Z was removed? it will be called Park? LOL.

Does that mean that the “planet” Pluto will someday make it back into the science books? Maybe approx. 200 years from now…

I mean I didn’t know.

Poor Z….

So lonely..

Ha,ha! XD

Just kidding!

But still…

i hate you stupid scientists!!!! GIMME BACK MY FAVORITE LETTER YOU LOSERS!

I think we should introduce the schwa as a letter

I will start a club! its called “i hate everyone who voted my fave letter out of the alphabet” club…

I really am happy. i hate Z

The unnecessary letters in the alphabets should be removed so that children can learn the language faster. The human DNA code has been written by God in just 4 alphabets, ATG and C,, Then why do we need soo many alphabets?

I hope I am first.

first comment!!!!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! lllllllooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i liked this story.

Great article and exceptionally interesting! Thanks for putting this out there.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

that’s weird, but cool

Wacky! I didn’t know “&” used to actually be part of the alphabet! How did it get to be punctuation then?

Crazy dude! Thats so cool!

Just yesterday I was wondering where “Ampersand” got its name from. Thanks!

so i dont understand is it a letter now or what?
I read the entire thing im quite confused.

Just kidding i have it now.

wow ill use that more often now that i know

i LOVE Z DONT TAKE IT FROM ME. ILUV ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZP.S IM A GIRL

so wow why have that as a letter its just something for lazy people to use as “and” in texting

That’s raw. Shout out to everyone doing it big.

Hi ☺

This is very interesting indeed.

Hmm… the modern alphabet has a lot of history behind it, doesn’t it?

thats dumb

Has or will it be removed from the alphabet?

The & actually used to be a letter? Get outta here!

really

wow

Interesting…

CoOoOoL.

yes!i am the first

Wow! I never knew that ‘&’ used to be in the alphabet, what words were there that had that ‘letter’ in it?

um…cool…that waz confuZing…

anyways, I’d really love to find out what the 27th letter to the alphabet was

I KNOW RIGHT!!!!

Poor Z….

Blah

now when i talk to people ill say ampersand

Well, it is now obvious that the internet has become more than what we feared. I typed in ‘dictionary.com’ into Google, to specifically look up the meaning of a word and look where I ended up! The internet is a strange place, isn’t it? Who cares where the letter z came from? You people who sit on your computers all day, writing articles that nobody cares about. Seriously? Get a life, find a girlfriend! Jesus, people these days. . .

Prune the English alphabet? Honey, it’s as easy as pie compared to other languages. The Japanese would laugh at you for even suggesting it isn’t!

First, ‘Z’ is still in the alphabet. To all the Z-fans here, if you read the article it clearly states that ‘Z’ was removed from and replaced into the alphabet during the Roman Empire, almost 2,000 years ago.
In response to Arcanis’s comment, I offer the same advise: Read the article. Again, it clearly states what the 27th letter was: ‘&’.
The article was interesting and enjoyable to read. A fascinating blurb about the most neglected letter in our alphabet.

But I LOV the letter Z it was so cool!!!!!!

HEY!!!!!!! My name is Zoey!!!!!!!! What, is it now Oey???????????

You guys don’t understand. This happened a long time ago, for one. For two, didn’t you read that the pronunciation for /z/ was commonly replaced by /r/? That means that, instead of the letter being absent from the word entirely, another letter (most likely r) took its place. So, if one were to take out the /z/ in ‘zeal,’ it would be pronounced as ‘real’ and spelled as so.

It probably sounds funny to us, but to the ancients, it is just like us replacing the ’s’ in some words with ‘z’, or likewise.

Theres a “z” in my name and without it it sound akward!

WOW PRETTY INTERESTING

NOOOOOOO!! D:
I hope Z wouldn’t get removed from the alphabet! How can we live without Z?
First up, there will be only 8 characters from my last name. Second, there won’t be any short term for sleep(zzz)! D: WHHYYY?!!

hmm I wonder if other letters evolved like the z, which changed shaped from its origional “I” appearance. Do you think that over time our current alphabet would evolve like the z did as well? that as we are writing, our letters are slowly evolving? or I guess computers make that difficult…

Well Im not happy! My name is Zia and alot of people think I’m unique for having my name end in Z. But now… My name isn’t ZIA! It’s IA! Im just upset… You can’t just take away the most unique and fun letter in the alphabet… Zia (now ia!) Is not happy

Aah ZEE. Let us now kneel and bow our Heads. The Glyph ZEE, but dont call me; CRAZEE

Most of the people who left the comments are ridiculous.

Seriously guys… Read the whole article, then you won’t be asking what the 27th letter used to be, or why the letter z was removed from the alphabet.

lol!
oh well…
im sure that someday “Z” would be back again.

besides, if the new letter is here, so does it mean we have to learn english all over again!!??!?!?!?!?!?!

(anyway, think + ppl!!)

Come on i love the letter z. people named Zoë or Zaire must be mad. wait zclub dang it.

Okay so i have a cousin named Zaniyah so now what we call her her mother names Zanberle !! do you get the point !! i have a friend named ziyonna and a asian friend named Z jusssst Z ! no one should have the authority to take out a letter especially because all theese years we had to learn it in the alphabet ! i’ll teach my children the letter Z inthe alphabet because this makes no sense at all .. JUST SAYINNNN

lol i guess im not zclub anymore now im club.

Why do Americans pronounce the letter’s name as “zee” while Canadians pronounce it as “zed” ?

take c from the alphabet bc it just makes the s and k sounds.we already have those letters

What is an “alaphabet”? Is that an alternate spelling for a big grey animal with a trunk and floppy ears?

all you who think we can’t use Z anymore are dumb. READ THE ARTICLE! it says that Z was in the alphabet a long time ago, taken out because it was pronounced “R”, then put back in with different pronunciation.

LOL try singing the alphabet now “ABC…..WXYZ ampersand” hahaha

Ampersand is still in there and it comes before the Z. Just sing the song.

“Z” the most attractive letter of the alphabet.. Y? Bc my name starts w a “Z”… Zelene…

whats the 27th letter?

so zero is sero and zebra sebra

Seriously, did most of you not even read the article? The letter Z isn’t being taken out of the alphabet. It WAS taken out a very very very very very long time ago, and then was reintroduced 200 years later. Here, if you morons are gonna be that lazy:

“Around 300 BC, the Roman Censor Appius Claudius Caecus removed z from the alphabet…….Two hundred years later, z was reintroduced……..”

THERE! Seriously people, learn to read…and for Arcanis who asked “anyways, I’d really love to find out what the 27th letter to the alphabet was” let me point out the WHOLE PARAGRAPH for you:

“Z was not always the final letter of the modern English alphabet, although it has always been in the 26th position. For years the & symbol (now known as the ampersand) was the final, pronounced “and” but recited with the Latin “per se,” meaning “by itself.” The position and pronunciation eventually ran together, with “X, Y, Z, and per se and” becoming “X, Y, Z, ampersand.”

How in the world did you manage to miss that whole section? Read, people…and pay attention so you don’t make idiotic comments…sheesh

I hate that whenever I read these things it never tells you what is says it does.

Does that mean if your name is “Zach” or something, it won’t really be a name~? Or like, would it just be “Ach”~?
And what about zoos~? Will they just have a theme change and turn into the Magical Land of Oo~?

My friends Nickname Is Z! Haha :ppp

so… did the name Amanda used to be am&a?

wow, ebra, oo, any (for zany) lol

IM NOW OE NOT ZOE

Wow I ♥ Z cuz its pretty intresting now : )

@ Kayla – Funeeee ; )

Wow. I never knew that, now I ♥ Z cuz its soo intresting! (But I don’t really get the story, lol )

I <3 Z !! i know we can still use it but WHY WOULD ANYONE REMOVE Z FROM THE ALPHABET!!!!!!!!!???????!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!?!!!
P.S. Z is the most abstract letter ever. it is also my favorite letter.
P.S.S. STUPID AMPERSAND!!!

Dont get rid of Z

U GUYS TAKING OUT THE LETTER Z U FREAKIN LOZERZ WHO YA THINK YA RZZZ TAKING AWAY Z FROM THE ALPHBET THATS MA FAV LETTERZ XP

nvm i read the article

Okay, when they said Pluto wasn’t a planet, I understood that. BUT WHY IN THE HECK remove Z from the alphabet? Hmm? WHAT THE FRIG IS WTONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!?!

never mind i read the article.

its says i posted at 5 40 but its 8 40

acctualy now there’s only 25 letters??
that was NOT a good desicion
not everybody knows this!!

The people from FOREVER ago were pretty lame about kicking out MY FAVORITE LETTER IN THE WHOLE WORLD and all that stuff….

I wonder why they don’t have a holiday for the reintroduction of the unique ‘z’………………. I mean it should be famous!
………..That would be pretty kewlio.

Does anyone know the Hot word for May 23, 2011. It stared with a z, four letters and meant the medal holder for a glass coffe cup much used in Europe. Za something …………help!!!

heck.,good thing its no letter “s”

OMG!!!!!!YES 1 less letter to know!!!!

27th letter but but ” &” replaced “Z” so… 26 letters still?

You guys really need to read the article and this isn’t a big deal because it is just a fact. If it is a big deal, it would be on Oprah or something. Lol I just made myself laugh by accident.

What the heck, so this sucks my name is ELIZABETH!!! so apperently its now eli_abeth !!!

then why is the letter “Z” on our computer keyboards??!!??

very interesting article, especially about ampersand being a letter in the alphabet. but i especially “love” the people who are frenetic about z being removed…they clearly did not read the article entirely. They sound like a bunch of middle schoolers if they are not already. making comments like i guess “this” is now “that” or not…or i guess i’m “this” now. you guys sound incompetent. so stop having a stupid incredulous rant about it. Everyone loves to be random, crazy and have their moments… but seriously…grow up. This happened YEARS ago.

Wow I never knew that. I think that Z should be used more often. zzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

Sree….um WTF? Secondly, thats incredible. I dont know what’s up with the whole & but letter Z, I applaud you! Stay strong brothuh!

@ bekah
That is exactly the case. If you were to check the Hot Word back log you would find many previously discussed letters.

NOOOOOOOO! Don’t remove letter Z! Z is my biggest role of my life. PLLLEEAAASSEEE don’t remove it! (sobbing)

All of you who think the letter Z is being removed from the alphabet… READ THE BLOODY ARTICLE BEFORE COMMENTING! It makes it clear that Z was removed along time ago but returned. I understand a few people or so making this mistake… but this is just facepalm worthy…

Who wants to bet only a handful of these inane comments were written by people who didn’t even bother to read the article beyond its title? My condolences to the author, who clearly hoped to attract a more attentive audience; your writing was not only perfectly clear, but was also interesting.

I hate it when people read only the title of the article and comment when they have no idea what they’re talking about. The title says “z was removed from the alphabet” as in it was removed over two thousand years ago and put back in later. Z isn’t going away, it’s still part of the alphabet.

Ze letter z really izen’t uzed alot, which is good i guezz. If z waz uzed more, than the letter s would become obzolete. And everybody lovez s’z.

You just ruined my day you took away my “Z” how could you?!? This is an outright crisis thanks a lot! Now what i’m supposed to say “Ebra” “Ipper” “oo” “Uchinni” “Esty”! Seriously like just because “Z” isn’t a commonly used letter doesn’t mean you need to take it away!!! Hmm what about “X” you don’t see anybody using that letter! OMZ Oh My Zebras!

kinda stupid since everybody would have to change there habits and get
used to not using Z.

Seriously….read folks! read the WHOLE article, it clearly states, as others pointed out, the Z was reintroduced and this all happened thousands of years ago…NOT TODAY lol

“Why do Americans pronounce the letter’s name as “zee” while Canadians pronounce it as “zed” ”

-Actually I guess the more appropriate pronunciation would be “zed”; which is closer to how it is pronounced in the German alphabet (zett), and with english being a germanic language that could be closer to the truth. American pronunciation of the letter seems to equivocal to its sound in usage.

this doesnt evn make sense but as i read some of the comments i guess it does u need to better word ur articles

Infedelz xbox live friend request me

Infedelz is my xbox live name so yea

The letter “Z” has not been REMOVED from the alphabet. It is an article telling about the history of the letter “Z”! Jesus, our education system is for sh*t.

HAHAHA… PEOPLE READ THE ARTICLE!! NO WHERE DOES IT STATE THE LETTER Z IS GOING TO BE REMOVED OR IS ‘MISSING’… HAHA… DUMBA$$E$!!

my last name starts with a Z so i’m i Amora now
oh sounds French!
Oh no way i went from Z to A now i can be at the front of the line
this would have come in handy in the lunch line during grade school

im still confused did they change it or not????

and per se and? Yeah, I don’t believe that at all.

*hugs Z tightly* It’s okay, you’re not alone now! *happily doesn’t have Z’s in my name at all*

So now my name is Ach?

i think X should have been removed not Z!

Look at my name!^^^^^…n keep reading

I love reading this while posting on Stormfront.

for me Z is cooL… coz i have it in my Last name.. ^_^
zzZz.. is the short term or symbol? when u are sleeping if u’LL remove Z from the alphabet what are u going to substitute ? S ???
so when someone is sleeping “ssSSSs ” isn’t it sounds as hissing of snakes ??? hahaha…
though Z is a rare used letter, it is as important as the other letters in the alphabet.. do appreciate it !!!

“Rirruto?”
“Those are Z’s”
“They look like R’s to me.”

Oh God, please tell me somebody else immediately thought of this…

10 points to anybody who gets this reference.

as i’ve read this article there’s no where that it states that letter Z will be removed..

I sit here, and I pray that people are kidding or trolling. I really do, because nobody is that ignorant.

“Oh no! My name is Zanea! Does that mean my name is now Anea?!?!?!” and “Please don’t remove the letter z plzplzplzplzplzplzplzplz!!!!” and of course, “They cannot do this! Not everybody knows about it!” or my personal favourite, “So why is the letter Z still on our keyboard?!?!”.

PLEASE be kidding.

please bring it back to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…..

SERIOUSLY!!! READ THE ARTICLE BEFORE COMMENTING, STUPID PEOPLE!!!

No matter its history, I just can see myself pronouncing it as “zed”. I mean Zed????!!! it’s like saying “bed” or …. “ed” for eeeee!

poor z dont worry we will take care , by using use you

this is fake, it started as an april fools joke. they did not and will not remove Z from the alphabet

Why remove letter that has been there for generations? It’s not like a statue that will be forgotten when you remove to a place!

I mean, WHAT’S the USE???

Glad a couple of people have mentioned it: as far as I’m aware, only Americans pronounce z as zee. To the rest of the English-speaking world, it’s zed. Why that is, I don’t know. But you Yanks sure do have a habit of acting like you own the bloomin’ language. Which you don’t.

How you’ll call me without the letter Z?!!! please do not cut my name.

So how about that z=zeta=weapon thing. You know in the arabic alphabrt the letter k=kaf=hand. I often wonder what all the letters started out as befor they lost thier pictographic relevance. Like the omega coming from an ox pictograph.

I wish my middle letter was &

zoooo funny…not zo buzy and waz able to dropped by on this page.

really interezting.!!!

2 remove z 4rm d alphabet is not possible ,cos my name start 4rm z. special name indeed.

Please READ the article BEFORE posting, so that you dont make yourself look STUPID by assuming Z has been removed from the modern day Alphabet.

Thank you. x

Lord Almighty! Did you hyped-up boneheads read the article? This article is on the history of the letter “Z” and the symbol “&”. What has been done was done before your unfortunate births.

lol!

after reading the article i felt so Zzzzzz..

Okay, so it was removed, then added. That’s very interesting. And ‘&’ was a letter? Wow. That means people wanted to use shortcut from a very long time ago.
But why was z removed? And why was it added again?
And why was & an alphabet? It’s a symbol now.
Can anyone tell us these stories too??

And, yes, more interesting is the fact that everyone here is only reading the heading of the article and panicking. Okay most people anyway. Geez, don’t you guys know better?

Hey! I hate it when they take out Z or z as my name starts with it. And how would u pronounce this:
Zoo
Zillion
Zebra
zero
customize(American)
Prizes
Zipper
Zip-lock

Slowly the whole word will be removed… .wat’s all this man …. you too are serious abt this… Z cannot be removed , rather i would like to add more and more word / alpabets in our BIG world. Just by reading such article would not go away … It has to be leagally sign-off.

I think proactively author is trying to build attention on “Z” and motivating to use Z on everywhere…

Seriously people, after reading your comments you make me lose faith in mankind. This is talking about history.

Stop being so stupid, learn to read and don’t comment if you clearly have no idea. You just embarras yourself.

wow! thats just great! (sarcastic) my friend her name is zaina now whats her name going to be? Baina or aina or something! the cant just remove a letter from the alphabets. i don’t believe this cr*p.
I LOVE the Letter ZzZzZzZ!

If we’re counting obsolete letters, what about numbers 28 and 29, “eth” and “thorn” (unvoiced and voiced “th”) which were used in Old English? I say it is time to resurrect them.

that is so cool!

Zombies, man, Zombies.

How are you going to spell Zombies without Z.

i love it..but i was so amazed no( or amared) hehehe..this is nice but not good.dont understand.?same as i why z was removed.huhuhu poor me…

I do not like this idea, seriously

we use “Z” in many places, maybe not it in language but, it is the most common letter in Math and Science.
how are we going draw a cube in a 3d plane with no “Z coordinates”?
we designed the “Z” and we must keep it. there is absoulutley no reason for it to be kicked out. D:

this means that my name will be or era!

Would like to hear about S & D

Every person below this post who adds a comment asking why ‘Z’ has been removed or telling us that their name will sound stupid without a ‘Z’ in it…

IZ Stupid!!!

(It’ll still happen though)

Why do we bother with education?

Interesting article – apologies on behalf of us who bothered to read it for all the numb-nuts out there who didn’t!!!

Tsk… tsk… tsk…. what about my name now? It starts with letter Z…. Since no more Z, should I be called Abrina now? geezzz!!!! ooppss… geee, i shoud say…

there isnt 27 letters in the alphabet

Is it possible that HOT WORD had, once upon a time, a more confusing article posted that was ambiguous about the time and place of “z”s removal? Then they realized their “oops” and reposted? (they have made changes based on comments before)

That would explain the mass hysteria over “z” going away. I see no other logical reason (besides widespread, rank and intractable laziness and stupidity, which is sadly possible)

WOW wish I could take some things out we don’t need

hey i have the same name amora with a Z

So… You all just look at a headline, misinterpret it, ignore the article, and start typing stupid comments?
Z was removed from the alphabet 2300 years ago. Z was then put back into the alphabet 2100 years ago.

How come ‘&’ was #27? We usually sing the alphabet as “X, Y, and Z”. The ‘&’ should’ve been #26 while Z should’ve been #27.

I know they only put it back 200 years ago.. but if we were to take it out again, it’d make it that much easier to say the alphabet backwards for cops.. But if they would add that ampersand back… pfft. Screwed.

Another pronunciation of “Z” (in addition to “zee” in the US and “zed” in most other English-speaking countries) is “izzard” (as in the comedian Eddie Izzard”) – I’m not sure but I believe it’s of Scots origin.

-.- i dont like this

why do they have to take the letter “Z” out of the alphabet? lots of people have the letter “Z” in there name keep the letter “Z” in the alphabet!!!

… Who says the education system is failing our children..?!?

Wow, who’d of thought that one of the more intellectually stimulating blogs I read has the absolute dumbest commenters? Ignoring all the folks who are gullible enough to think that a letter is going to “disappear”, thank you for this article. I always enjoy the origins of letters posts. I had previously read about where the ampersand got its name but I had no idea it was once considered part of the alphabet.

I’ve often wondered why americans are the only ones who call z “zee”. There was a woman on Jeopardy the other night who was Canadian and used “zed” and it got me thinking about it. French uses “zed” as well.

I think most of these comments are left by middle-schoolers who are working on assignments in the school library, look up a word on dictionary.com, read the title of the article, then make the most ridiculous comments without reading the entire article. I’ve noticed that the spelling and grammar is poor, includes ‘text speak’, and such inane comments as “cool dude”, or “IM NOW OE NOT ZOE”, or “IM A GIRL”, etc. This is usually the case when dictionary.com writes an article on the history of a letter.

When the subject of the article is the name of a month or a day (April, November, Wednesday, etc), then a lot of these kids post comments about their impending birthdays, followed by “WHOO HOO”.

Really people, read the whole article before assuming. Some of you peeps should learn reading an article before thinking that the title says all abt the article.

On another note, I find the letter Z sexy.

hi lolz idk what all the fuzz iz about z iz hardly eva uzed lolz juzt zayin

Is Z really the least common letter/least used? I would’ve thought that was X. I can think of a lot more words that have Z in them.

R.I.P to Z
ZZzZzzZz

zounds!

i thought that z was the 26th letter in the alphabet. even if i was wrong why did the remove the letter z.
WHAT DID Z EVER DO TO THEM?

who cares about history z should remain a letter in the alphabit

Even allowing for stupid time-wasters (like “Oooh I’m first) how can so many take the trouble to write complaining about the ‘loss’ of ‘z’ when they clearly have not taken the trouble to read the article? Or are they REALLY so stupid that they HAVE read it and failed to understand?

POOR Z!!!!:(

But Z is BACK!!!!!
CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):);D

i heart ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All of these comments are just too funny!!

WHY???? LETTER “Z” CANNOT BE REMOVED FROM ALPHABET. PEOPLES NAME OR LAST NAMES START WITH “Z”. MANY WORDS START WITH THE LETTER “Z”. SO WHAT THE HELL IS YALL’S PROBLEM.

aww! my name is Zoey

Well, the character Kent in Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ (Act II Scene II) exclaims ‘Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!’ Evidently in Shakespeare’s day the letter Z (pronounced ‘zed’) was considered a useless letter.

Good news for those people who have become upset at losing the letter ‘Z’.

The Administration have negotiated the ability for these people to keep using the letter ‘Z’ in their names and in their writing, but it will come at a significant cost.

As you may realise, your keyboards have the letter ‘Z’ on them – these are now classified as foreign language keyboards, and may not be used connected to the internet in any English speaking country, as the ‘Z’s may corrupt the data flows. It is expected that the networks will be upgrade by the end of 2015 to cope with the foreign languages within this country.

To repeat the news: If you are upset at losing the letter ‘Z’, you have been granted special permission to keep using it, if you do not use the Internet again until the end of 2015. However you must send your local congressman an email to let them know you are not using the Internet.

The Administration will also tell you the 27th letter of the alphabet & highly recommend that you put all your new found spare time to use by taking some Reading & Comprehension classes.

Kind regards,
The Oval Officer.

I really liked this article. I never knew about he ampersand. There are a lot of people who said they think words like “zoo” and “zero” would be “oo” and “ero” without Z, but clearly states that early English didn’t have a use for Z, but rather used s for all sibilants. Could you try to not skim, please?

I really like the research done, and when someone posts that they “don’t believe it”, the never realize that they aren’t the ones who did research, as I’m sure the author did.

Until next time,
A. J. Meyer

It seems that Z may not have always been such a johnny come lately after all.
Sampson (1985) suggested that: “Evidently the order of the alphabet was felt to be such a concrete thing that a new letter could be added in the middle only if a ’space’ was created by the dropping of an old letter.”According to some records, the original seventh letter, ‹z›, had been purged from the Latin alphabet somewhat earlier in the 3rd century BC by the Roman censor Appius Claudius.
Apparently this guy Ruga wanted to install his own pet letter (G) and numerology being what it is…

oh my god you guys are stupid, read the article! z isn’t being removed it was removed from the alphabet along time ago then it was put back in the alphabet. so the alphabet still goes; ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

oh and the 27th letter USED to be &

…zzz

Well this is….. Interesting.

The letter Z was reintroduced to the Alphabet because people needed a way to tell if a person was sleeping, or actually dead. From then on, sleeping people go “zzzzz” and dead people go….to a hole in the ground. lol.

I hate popsicles there rellay

purple

Did any of you even read the article?! The letter z was already reintroduced several hundred years ago!!

There once was a letter named “Z”
That was always pronounced with such glee.
When it was maliciously taken away
It had no choice but to say fair well to the “A”
But, just like the clap, I’ll sneak under your lap
And stick around for a couple more days.

This is something I have heard for the first time, it sounds interesting …..and even I do not beleive on that…

so what gonna to be happen with Zero, Zebra………and all.????

Its amazing that most of the readers dont really get what the article is saying and start mourning the demise of Z. How can people be so dumb it clearly states that it was once removed, in current times it is all but an alphabet like others in its place..

I ♥ the word ampersand. I am driving my sister crazy with ampersand. LoL. it is such a cool word. I also like the following comments: Try singing the alphabet now “ABC…..WXYZ ampersand” ampersand the ones that tell people to read the article.

It shoulnt end like that

Hannah Jeckre: And you are doing what exactly today? You read the article didn’t you? And took the time to respond? And felt it incumbent upon yourself to insult everyone else? What was it you said? Get a life.

My comment here is: the @ symbol is already part of the 21st century alphabet.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/letter-z-removal-hoax.shtml
check it.

If & was originally after z, how come we learn to sing the alphabet as ‘x, y, AND, z’?????????

z is a consonant… you arent going to recall all cell phones and keyboards just to remove it are you?…. therefore i shall keep using the letter Z and it is my favorite consonant.

So, what noise would bees (and other insects) make if not for the Z?

ok not all like jenny isn’t and zoey isn’t thats it tho lol

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha i love zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

And now the other big question, why do the Brits manage to pronounce it “Zed” when it’s just plain “Z” to almost everyone else? I actually prefer “zeta” to “zed” anyway… and yeah the British (ok, Welsh) Catherine Zeta Jones only helps make me feel even more right — LOL

But to the people that wonder what is going to happen to their favorite words – like “zoo, zero, zebra”, maybe you should have actually read the article before commenting? Though I do wonder how they could have justified removing it so long ago, I mean how else would you spell Zeta (which was obviously around back then) without “Z”?

As I was sitting here eating my s&which & listening to a recording of my son’s jazz b& (he plays the baby gr&), I found this article very interesting. Many of the articles are kind of bl&, but this one exp&ed my knowledge. I did a search to see if I could find a str& evidence that this was true and did find it on wikipedia. I am not sure how the letter could ever be used & will bring this comment to a close before it gets out of h&.

hey yallz i love ebras i have ero ebras

Well there is something else that those “know it people” had to go and mess up. Well I am happy that someone realiZed that it was a screw up and fixed it and put Z back where he belongs in the alphabet

Well, if nothing else this controversy has confirmed that most of the people who use the site really need it since they obviously can’t READ. “Z” was removed and REPLACED 2000 years ago. Rest easy, we still have Z. We also still have the ampersand, it just isn’t part of the alphabet any more so all you folks whose literacy was arrested at first grade need not learn a new song.

That’s why you get 10 points in Scrabble! Of course, many of you computer based kids don’t even know what a board game is! Nope, Scrabble is not available on Wii or X-Box but it does make you think.

This is a bogus article. The english alphabet is much more complicated than this. For example, the thorn, (Þ, þ) , a rune was part of the alphabet used in medieval English. It is pronounced as a hard ‘th’. To avoid confusion with the letter ‘P’, early scribes and printers began using ‘Y’ which looks a little like a þ. Therefore, Ye [ þe] Old Grog Shop is pronounced The Old Grog Shop, and ye [ þe], as in YOU, is pronounced ‘thee’ as “in hasten thee down the road”. And ‘þu’ [yu] is pronounced thou and þt [yt] for that. Do þe get þt?

the 27 letter was what we call a symbol for the word and.

” &” the 27 letter

“The Oval Officer on May 25, 2011 at 8:11 am”

You Sir, are awesome.

Now I need to go watch the last of my faith in humanity trickle slowly down a drain.

sucks for the letter zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The letter “Z” is not humble, but exalted! Your everyday “E’s” and “A’s” are the humble ones, the way I see it.

But man, really? It’s hard for me to see what’s rarer, this or “Q”.

Okay really stop saying, “What would happen to Zoo/Zebra/Zeal (my name etc.)?” it wasn’t our language people! they didn’t have the same words that we do. It wasn’t used on a regular basis, we probably use it more…(the reason why it’s still in the alphabet.) Just be happy that we don’t speak that language and that you can use this “wonderful” letter. Happy?

as for Hannah Jeckre, Please…it’s someones job to create these kinds of articles…not just someone writing because they want to. Even if they did write it simply because they wanted to, gives you no right to say anything to them. If you like to smell your own farts, no one is going to tell YOU anything about it.

Beet that greek! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Wow. I never knew people could be THIS stupid. I am really impressed.

Not only did they not read what the article was about, but they neither saw any of the comments explaining that the Z is NOT being removed from the alphabet! Freaking out because of a title… That is sad.

& was the 27 letter in the Aphalbet, never knew that. Ths Sty was so koollllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and Wierd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you imagine if we went around using “&” in all our general writing?
The English language would be even weirder.

ALSO, I find it hilarious how most of these people commenting think “z” was removed from the alphabet altogether. The article clearly states is was reinstated hahaha.

z sleeping letter i no no

COME ONE PEOPLE!! READ THE DARN THING BEFORE YOU START FREAKING OUT!! Around 300 BC, the Roman Censor Appius Claudius Caecus removed z from the alphabet. His justification was that z had become archaic: the pronunciation of /z/ had become /r/ by a process called rhotacism, rendering the letter z useless. At the same time that z was removed, g was added, but that’s another story… AGAIN FOR THE DENSE IT WAS REMOVED AROUND 300 BC AND THEN LATER ADDED AGAIN!! GEESH!!

Amazing how many people comment without bothering to read the article.

That’s right. Don’t take anything in. Just keeping spewing.

SO PLEASE STOP FREAKING OUT!! EVERYONE THAT IS WORRIED ABOUT WHAT THE WORLD WOULD BE WITHOUT Z CAN BREATH AGAIN!!

so whats the new letter. so long z i will miss you. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. what if your name starts with a z

For the Greek lovers-

In Greek too, there are very few words beginning with zee. What I’d like to add to the above article is that the letter “z” (along with x and ps – all of which are single letters in Greek) are called double consonants because they are made up out of two ones. In the case of “z” there are two possibilites:
a) the combination of sigma (s) and delta (d)
b) the combination of delta (d) and yodh (j)

It is important to know that, because the etymology and root of a word containing “z” can be more easily revealed and explained. It’s a matter of observation

Poor little z or should I say poor little…………………………………….

LOLLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO)OOOOL

but still its so emotional D:

I had always been taught that the ampersand was a substitution for the word and, which in Latin is et. The shape of the symbol came from the handwriting slipping a majiscule E with a miniscule t together until it came out, eventually, to appear as it does: &. However, until today I was of the impression it was always classified as a symbol representing “and”, just like “$” is the symbol/substitution for the word “dollar”. I’m wondering about the research support for this article.

people with the First few comments didn’t read the whole thing, the Z sound wasx replaced with an R.

The turbulent history of the letter ‘Z’ does not end with antiqity. Anyone interested in the contemporary unheaval in which ‘Z’ played as point of reference should look up “Z”, a movie made by Costa Gavras depicting the political strife which rocked Greece during the 1960’s.

… Will this work?

Why is it that majority of those who put comments here seems to have the article misunderstood? Hey it says, Z was removed, and then put back again.. So don’t worry you Z-fans, hey you are not living in 300 BC. Today is 2011. Read the article again Z-worriers. .

gees stop saying as if the letter z is gone fover because 200 years after 3000B.C.,okay? it say right in the article, stupid poeple

i mean it came back ,z

yo whatsup!, actually ju carez if da zi was removed we use it now so srtop it

that is so not true people dont belive what you hear on the internet

now i will have to use a ippo no more zippo

i command q life z was/is my favorite letter evver

I thought there was only 26 letters in the alphabet and not 27 letters like the person was telling us at the top of this page… Soo confused?!?!? :/ I think they r lying

:X ;0

:X

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ IS MY FAV STUPID LETR

i shall say no more

this is the coolest thing ever but WHY Z???
I love the letter Z!

aint that right girl friend. Yeah i am going with Penny

I’m glad it was brought back. i like my last name.

I’m guessing – by the large number of people on here giving out about Z being removed from the alphabet – that they didn’t even read the article. For those too lazy to read the whole thing: it was removed in 300BC and reintroduced in 500BC. It’s not gone!

Very interesting article. I never knew ampersand came from “and per se and”. It only really makes sense if you say it with a strong southern accent (like Matthew McConaughey) ^_^

Did no one actually read the article?
‘Z’ was not removed from the alphabet, people. Honestly, read it before you post.

Hmm I Love That Letter Its Uniqueness &&’ Sound. Thanks Too Letter “Z” MY Name Is The Way It Is

are you sure this is right?

Wow Z was gone for along time 200 years at least my favorite letter is back from hell

im with Z z Z z Z z Z z Z that is my favorite letter and it came from hell how awsome is htat

this is sad but interesting for Z’s

So I guess these lazy scientists should retire, or should I say lay scientists? REALLY?

Really cool my last name is Zamora wich would be Iamora

Is that cool or what!!! lol

WHAT??? If you losers who hate Z are lunatics. Z RULED MY SCHOOL! So what are we supposed to do now? There are thousands of words that I can’t even remember that start with a Z. Like zephr battery from Knight and Day. Or zebra, etc. I’m writing a book, and I have SO MANY Z-worded thingy-ma-bobs in it. What’s wrong with you people??!!!

I am really posting this commet @ 7:48 PM

oh wait now I C. It was in 3000B.C. WHOOPSIE! I thought I was going to go buzurk!!!

all i can say is why

amazing how my 1st name & last name contain a Z

THIS IS TOTALLY COOL! I CAN’T BELIEVE AN AND USED TO BE THE 27TH LETTER OF THE ALPHABET!!!

Um, the article didn’t say anything about taking Z away right now.

hey, it’s 7:17 and the time on my post is 2 hours back.
What?

hey, it’s 7:19 and the time on my post is 2 hours back. Where was this website created because it is not 5 o’clock right now?

i love Z!! it’s my fave letter!! lol. so i guess the & sign was #27??…eh…i think i like Z better as the last!! lol. =]

this is very dumb that z is out fo the alphabeat

some of the BIGGEST idoits comment on this stuff.
seriously, read the article before you embarass yourself.
i says it was removed in 300 BC, no 2011.
it’s not gone and neither is your ‘favorie letter.’
you’re beyond weird to have a ‘favorite letter’ in the first place….

u guys r soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cheesy by saying z was taken out of the alphabet

I love Z….. I think Q should go instead

Zack would be ack zuchini would be uchini… This is garbage..

what about my name i will have to be called oey!!! ((((((

How will we spell quartz or Zennist!? What reason did they have to remove Z? Why be so mean to something awesome and ancient!

Some of you people are morons. This article doesn’t say it has been removed from the alphabet NOW… It was removed in the past, for almost 200 years… It has obviously been re-included in the alphabet since then.

My god… if people would read more than the headline, they might actually learn something.

Worry not folks send me ten bucks & I’ll send you a liffetime supply of Z’s . Please specify Majuscule or minuscule. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. offer good only in the contenintal United States of America.

LAZ OF ZE ZCIENTIZES

I thought X was the least used. o_O

it’s a hoax. the letter z is NOT being removed from the alphabet – look it up on google. it was one of those “email” hoaxes that got out of hand

oh also, i’ve read somewhere else that “and per se and” was only a way for children to remember how to spell ampersand

it’s a hoax..this whole thing:)

it’s a hoax! the letter z is not being removed from the alphabet – look it up on google. it was one of those email hoaxes that got out of hand

FLame WAR!

So now what’s going to happen to the z-axis?

Did you people even read this? The “Z” would have been replaced with an “S”! The idiocy of some people astounds me. Then again, my IQ is 148…

thats sucks my FAVORITE LETTER got removed (
i hate it now how are we gonna say zoo are we gonna say oo imagine we add ee ah ah and thats oo ee ah ah
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz was famous

wow everybody wrote today ) i think im late for bed

I feel as if I have gotten dumber reading these comments. I guess people don’t bother to read anymore. I find it a bit humorous when people say, “I think they are lying.” or “Don’t trust what you read on the internet.” Well, they are right on that point. I totally should not trust what they have just typed as they have no clue what ignorance they are spewing. I’m trying to figure out if they haven’t read the article or if they HAVE read it but are too stupid to actually comprehend the information stated in the article.

Anyway, this was a really interesting article. It was also nice to know that other countries pronounce “z” as “zed.” I never knew that until now. It makes me wonder how they say certain words.

UGH NO DUN TAYK Z AWEY FRUM TEH ALFABET OH MAI GUDNES WUTZ GUNA HAPIN 2 THOZ NAYMD SUMTHIN LYKE ZAC OR ZENA OH MAAAAAAAAAAI TEH WURLD IZ GUNA ENNNNNNNNND!!!!!1111!!!!!11111111111111111one!!!!!1111111eleven111111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

Muahaha. Pay attention to the article, noobs. It clearly say that a LONG LONG LONG time ago, they took Z out of the alphabet and later reintroduced it. They’re not going to take it out again.

The letters y and z are switched on the English vs. the German keyboard. I suppose that’s be cause in German, y is the rarest letter.

Poor ol’ Z.

At least I’m doing my part in keeping the Z. I’m proud that it also ends my name.

Okay people, the letter “Z” is still there. They got rid of in a long time ago and then brought it back. So for all those people freaking out about their names and stuff, DON’T GO CRAZY! THE LETTER “Z” IS STILL A LETTER! YOUR NAMES ARE STILL THE SAME! SO RE-READ THE ARTICAL!
-Lilion

people, “z” is not remove in the alphabet…. Please read it…

‘Z was not always the final letter of the modern English alphabet, although it has always been in the 26th position. For years the & symbol (now known as the ampersand) was the final, pronounced “and” but recited with the Latin “per se,” meaning “by itself.” The position and pronunciation eventually ran together, with “X, Y, Z, and per se and” becoming “X, Y, Z, ampersand.”

get it?

The letter Z is FOREVER ALONE >_<

“Oh no, where has Z gone? Am I going to have to learn how to spell all over again? What about the children, how will they know?! Let’s start a Facebook group petition, because God only knows we need one more!” Seriously, everyone needs to either read the post, or do something actually useful in their day.

Sorry, I meant I wish that the first letter of my middle name was &. Then it would be Ampersandrew.

It is not possible to remove letter Z from the alphabet ,cos my name start from the letter, it can not be pronounce very well

But, why until now, letter Z is excisting ?
Z is still the last letter in alphabet ..

I hate the letter Z.

Thanks for the story it is a bit funny. lol. I love the first comment too. “ebra, ero” …lol!

It’s such a shame that such an interesting article had to attract some less than intelligent postings. Could we not comment about them any more?

The interesting question would be whether we could expect any new letters to be introduced in the future, possibly to solve the problem of some words being written very differently to how they’re said.

Quote : wigs62 on May 25, 2011 at 1:48 pm
“I had always been taught that the ampersand was a substitution for the word and, which in Latin is et. The shape of the symbol came from the handwriting slipping a majiscule E with a miniscule t together until it came out, eventually, to appear as it does: . . . I’m wondering about the research support for this article.”
————————————————-
I do wonder the same thing. It does seem questionable; and it isn’t the first such questionable claim made here.

many includes/excludes may happen in language, letters, words etc..but it is not so easy to remove a letter in this modern days as it will be used in many forms and ways….I feel this will not happen and consider as a funny story..Don’t feel Z..you will be there until zero is there…

You people are stuoid Z rocks Zoo i guess is oo now and Zoey is Oey WTH!!!!

This article is very interesting. I love Z! It should be used more often. K and Z are my fav letters. And also J.

wat the hell dey should just leave Z alone dats my favorite letter n plus wat r u we gonna zebras wen Z is gone rebras its stupid n call zoo oo

Awwwww….. y take out z… its used for alot of things like names (like my last name) and for other important things. This is totaly uncalled for.

kool lol

SADLY, ONLY A FEW OTHER OTHERS HAVE DISCOVERED THAT THE Z IS STILL WITH US! YOU’RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF THE SENSATIONALIST CLOWNS, WHO WANT TO YOU TO THINK THAT THE LETTER Z IS NO MORE. THEY HAVE OBVIOUSLY SUCCEEDED. THE HEADING EXCLAIMS, “SORRY LETTER Z”. BUT FOR WHAT? FOR BEING REMOVED? YES IT’S TRUE. IT WAS REMOVED, AS STATED – BUT IT’S ALSO INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING. IT INDEED WAS REMOVED MILLENNIA AGO, BUT YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO READ THE ARTICLE TO LEARN OF ITS RETURN CENTURIES LATER! THEY KNOW THAT YOU INTELLECTUALLY LAZY IDIOTS WON’T READ MORE THAN A FEW LINES IN BOLD TYPE – HENCE THE COLLECTION OF STUPID POSTS!

http://hotword.dictionary.com/z/?rh=dictionary.reference.com&__utma=1.1726472986.1306417401.1306417401.1306417401.1&__utmb=1.8.9.1306417714178&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1306417401.1.1.utmcsr=%28direct%29|utmccn=%28direct%29|utmcmd=%28none%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=120861704

yyyyyyyyyyyyay

i gots a booboo:(

u no wat? i hatee u pplzz 4 taking that letter outt

so what is the 27th letter it doesn’t say

Poor Zorro. He would have had to just stab people and leave it at that.

im gonna call this cheese

or maybe cheezzzz

hey Bnes , I know what you mean, all these comments from people who didnt even read the article correctly, people read the WHOLE ARTICLE AND IT WILL EXPLAIN THAT THEY DID NOT REMOVE THE LETTER

i HOPE MOST OF YOU WERE JUST RESPONDING HYPOTHETICALLY, MEANING IF Z HAD BEEN TAKEN OUT OF THE ALPHABET IN TODAY’S ALPHABET

hey, did u pplz check out the thing about the liger? or tion? or watever it is

oh… and wats a zuz????????????????????????????????????? is it just an u? i like zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :’( bye bye then :’(

The letter z was removed 300 B.C. and reinstated 200 years later. It was removed back then. They are NOT removing it now. READ THE ARTICLE

I’m a little irked. My LG cell phone nixes the letter ‘Z’ and substitutes the letter ‘S’. So my ‘Organizer’ screen is an ‘Organiser’ screen. It’s accepted in the World English Dic. but really, we say ’s’ like an ’s’ and we say ‘z’ like a ‘z’. I think some people have letter ‘z’ angst. They must get anxious about when to and when to not use a ‘Z’. Hey, If it’s said with a ‘z’ sound, get some back bone and write it with a damn ‘z’! Next thing you know they’ll have ‘x’ angst and write anxious like ankshous. C’mon, EMBRACE THE “Z”.

Omg & WAY wasnt a letter, like, ever! i mean seriously, it dont even LOOK like a letter!

they AINT REMOVING THE LETTER Z … stop freakin out!

Seriously d.com you’ll delete our comments for hostility but not for idiocy.

this is cool

Why is it that you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway? Just something to ponder…

Why remove the letter z? What did poor letter Z do to you?

This comment thread is beyond baffling.

Yeah it’s really bad, Z’s gone, J and Q are going in August, and X is being voted on for going in november, plus we’re giving up F for lent next year!

Read the article for **** sake please, or don’t bother leaving a comment!

it was an unwise decision..the letter is of great import
i like the poor zorro comment though

i dont get it…

I just relized…alot of people really need to re-learn how to read and spell. Thanks for boosting my confidence in man kind guys. -_-

you never can remove any letter .why do you ever care about past tense.

learn from your past
live in the present
plan for the future

please do follow this rule .you are all caring in the past.just ignore this nonsense

THAT IS REALLY FASCINATING. LLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ONCE WAS
NEVER WAS
I WILL MISS U Z

ZZZzzzZZzzZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZ……
WHO cares at all? its a FRICKING letter.
OOOPSS! my mistake, would i have to say
……..

WHAT MY NAME IS ZOEY IS IT NOW OEY

LOL! quess my name is Aina now…lol atleast it WAS back thenn how could they ban poor Z!! its ma fav letter because its the last and it seems special or Zpecial!!!
LOLOOOLO SO LAMMEEEEE!!<3<3<3<3<3<3
Love this ARTICLEEE =D

“Not only did the letter a used to look different [...]” Really? Did it “used”? GRAMMAR FAIL!

Perhaps we could make up a new letter. Flash mobs can be organized, so why not flash letters? Make up the new letter, then start using it. It’ll catch on.

WHYYY did you HAVE to take AWAY the letter “z”???

wow… like 1 in 20 of you all have actually read the article, no?

it was a really long time ago that “Z” was taken out of the alphabet, and it’s back now and has been back for as long as you’ve known it to be there. So chill. It’s not a hoax and it’s not anything you’re going to have to change in your everyday text-based actions. Keyboards and phones will not change, and zebras, zoologists, zucchinis, zeros, and zippers; as well as zillions of other things need not worry. :3

Jeeze.

Also, it’s interesting to know that “&” used to be a letter! I don’t exactly understand how that would work. xP

that is so cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

You guys need to get a life. did you not read the article! it clearly states every single question you ask. Why do you people seem to think your names are different? Nobody said that Z was gone. if you’re going to comment on an article, read it first.

I think ‘Z’ is the most common letter in Polish. 8o)

Well thats dumb,

like even baby know that z should always be at the end.

Stupid scientists!!! Why would you do that??? The letter Z has been part of the alphabet for centuries now…why would you remove it?…..( stupid ) -.-
This just won’t feel right now…=’(

WTF?!?!!! (What the freak) How the heck do you remove the coolest letter from the friggin alphabets! That isn’t the first time that loser scientists who don’t believe in God did this!!!!! Pluto. My favorite “planet” is no longer a planet! “Z” and “Pluto.” Life really has a way of repeating itself. All of my favorite things will soon cease to exist. Soon enough, blue will no longer be a color! Darn it! ~_~

“Sorry letter z” is a fragment. It should end with a colon.

Or, perhaps it is missing a comma, if it is addressing “letter z.”

I would have expected more from dictionary.com. Very disappointed.

Did you know gulible isn’t in the dictionary??? Lol.

so wate…is z really not a letter anymore?????? WHY?!?!

Do not get it they might be ling not sour, a 27th letter really doesn’t make any sense.

This makes no sense at all…. If we are on a computer, and the letter Z is taken off, then our whole computer has to be made again. The letter Z would have to be taken off, and people that already learned how to type would have to type differently cause the keyboard would be slightly smaller. So… I would just like to ask someone how this would actually work, and I totally agree with some of the people, I mean…. What will we say as zero? Or zebra. e.e That is pretty confusing if the letter Z would be taken off.

it’s sad how z isn’t a letter anymore

so boooooored ……….. -_- zZzZzZzZzZ

mmmm idgaf what these people say Z STILL EXISTS IN MY WORLD

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz STUPID & ITS NEVER MY LAST LETTER MY BRAIN IS GOING CRAZY WHATS THE ALPHABET ANYWAY?

I suppose the British English alphabet could survive without ‘Z’ changing words that begin with it to begini with and ‘X’ as the majority of words beginning with ‘x’ sound like what we know ‘z’ to sound like

Xylophone
Xerox

But would you really want words like:

Xoo
Xebra
Xante
Xero?
…..

Plus there are other more pointless letters to deal with first such as ‘c’ and ‘k’ or ‘ph’ and ‘f’… are they both really needed in contemporary English?

I think that I will never see,
A letter quite as cool as Z.
For Z will always be my hero
When the temperature goes down to Zero.

That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Isn’t it rather ironic that here on a dictionary site, on a blog that deals with the meanings and origins of words and letters, so many of the commenters either did not bother to read or did not understand the article? The removal of the Z occurred about 2,300 years ago and it was restored about 2,100 years ago. This was all done during the days of the Roman republic. The English language as we know it did not even exist yet and its major predecessor did not make use of the Latin alphabet. A zoo is still a zoo, not an oo. Of course, had you read the article, you would know that the reason for dropping the Z was due to a pronunciation shift. If it applied to English we would not be saying oo, we would say roo. In reality, you can go to the zoo to see the roo; it is in the enclosure next to the koala.

I am mortified at the number of people who posted such misguided comments; asking what the 27th letter was (hint) & ranting about the removal of ‘z’.
Did ANYONE other than myself, and 3 other people, read the entire article??!?
I will refrain from insulting anyone for this, because throwing dirt doesn’t help anyone. However, I MUST say it is frightening how so many people are SO quick to post un-educated comments, allowing themselves to become irate over something that could have been prevented, had they read a little further. This site is a fabulous tool, when utilized to improve your vocabulary and increase your knowledge. A scary future is imminent when we become too complacent to learn, and speak before educating ourselves.
Please remember: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, Keep Reading! God Bless!

Z actually has a use, so I’m glad it’s been put back into the alphabet, but I would love to see x and c removed. X either sounds like a z or ks, and C sounds like s or k. Neither one is necessary.

Did any of you actually READ the article? The letter Z was removed in 300 B.C. and replaced in 100 B.C.

what would ues have to say?

Funny! My 4 year old just asked me yesterday in a very somber voice, “Mom, Why don’t we every practice z words?” I guess I should read this article to him! I always found it fascinating how the Brittish seem to use “s” instead of “z” in many of the words Americans use.

Z isn’t gone lol…it was removed once in the past. Apparently nobody read/comprehended the article.

OMG I love z why are they getting ridd of it?? is this fake cause i dont like fake stuff

Sounds funny…..cant imagine that letter Z is no more…..hard to beliv, then whats next.

Is there a replacement or a NEW LETTER in alphabet.

However Z sounds coool- Zeeeeeee

Z is my sweetie, dont take it away from me… ZZEEeeeehahahahahaahhahahaha

omg what would we do with out u i<3 u letter Z

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,&.
Hm…
“Dragon Ball &”…. Interesting…

Uh… dudes and dudettes, as if anyone even uses ’90s teen lingo anymore, you DO know this is a HISTORY OF Z, right? At no point in the immediate future is Z leaving the English alphabet. At this point in history, adding or removing any letters to the English dictionary- save foreign ones- would cause technological and educational and financial and perhaps even social chaos.

Yes, I know. A butterfly’s death can bring down a mountain these days.

Uh… dudes and dudettes, as if anyone even uses ’90s teen lingo anymore, you DO know this is a HISTORY OF Z, right? At no point in the immediate future is Z leaving the English alphabet. At this point in history, adding or removing any letters to the English dictionary- save foreign ones- would cause technological and educational and financial and perhaps even social chaos.

Yes, I know. A butterfly’s death can bring down a mountain these days.

Hm…
“Dragon Ball &”…. Not as catchy.

“Does anyone know the Hot word for May 23, 2011. It stared with a z, four letters and meant the medal holder for a glass coffe cup much used in Europe. Za something …………help!!”

zarf

lol, my friends name would be ac instead of zac.

wooooow its a prank!!

I’d like to respond to Hannah Jeckre’s comment: “Well, it is now obvious that the internet has become more than what we feared. I typed in ‘dictionary.com’ into Google, to specifically look up the meaning of a word and look where I ended up! The internet is a strange place, isn’t it? Who cares where the letter z came from? You people who sit on your computers all day, writing articles that nobody cares about. Seriously? Get a life, find a girlfriend! Jesus, people these days. . .”. Where to begin? First of all don’t blame the internet for your own mistakes, know what you are clicking on before you actually click it. Plus this site is easy to navigate, so I don’t know why you are complaining in the first place, all you have to do is type the word in the search-bar at the top. Second of all, just because you don’t care where the letter “Z” came from doesn’t mean nobody else does either. To me history in general is fun to learn about. Third of all, you say that the people who write these articles have no life etc. yet you took the time to complain about it with an angry comment like that. And lastly, it is not people like them who ruin the world, it is people like you. You spread hate whereas they spread knowledge. Too many people these days have no respect or appreciation for other people as I think you illustrate quite nicely. Thanks for your time.

Was Schreiben sie? ^^

how am i suppose to sleep without ZZZZZ

Sorry!!!!!!!!! thats not enough!! Z (the awesome-st letter ever) should have a more remorseful address in light of its demise

zorry

What are you people – idiots?
If you were smart enough to read the article you’d know that they took z out of the alphabet YEARS AGO and then they put it back in YEARS AGO. DUH.

listen, im just trying to get a load away, who gives a fk is theres a z or not

Poor Chinese… most of them has “Zs”… and why? Its not like THE WHOLE POPULATION IN THIS WORLD SPEAKS ENGLISH… ITS NOT FAIR…. So those names and letter that starts with Z will now become,
Zang Zi Yi=Smang Smi Yi,
Zoo = SMoo,
Zipper = SMipper
And my favorite GAME! Plants versus Smombie!

Has anyone informed Zaire that they no longer exist?
What replaces the words ‘zigzag, zone, zilch, zoologist, Zebra, zed or ‘z’ meaning 2000 in Roman numerals’? I could list a host of words starting or containing the letter ‘Z’.
The illiterate moron/s that claim ‘Z’ is obsolete need to catch some zzzzzs and spend less time sending text messages which ‘bastardizes’and demeans language. One can only assume the dunces responsible for such idiocy were denied or neglected in basic learning skills in their early education.
The famous Doctor Seuss would be mortified!!!!!
Does this mean that ‘Zinc’ has now become obsolete!!!!
Do you know that when a female egg is fertilized it becomes a ‘zygote’.
Shakespeare would refer to such stupidity as ‘zany’, definition ‘a clown’.
How appropriate to those dumb asses tampering with 26th letter ‘Z’ used in past, present and will maintain it’s future place in the English or any other language!

@ Hannah Jeckre, @any idiot who agrees with Hannah Jeckre — Oh my God, are you kidding? “Who cares where the letter z came from?”???!!! Just because you’re ignorant enough to not care about knowledge doesn’t mean everyone else is, too. I, as well as many others, find it fascinating!
What I don’t get is why do people even read these articles and comment if all they have to say is that they don’t care and they think other people don’t either? And by the way, what exactly did you hope to accomplish by posting that comment, other than sounding like a moronic bitch?

@all those people who were asking what the 27th letter is and how they’re so sad there’s no “z” and all that — Why comment if you haven’t fully read the article? And if “z” really no longer existed, don’t you think it would have made the news or something?

@Everyone I’ve addressed so far — THINK, don’t just ACT.

Guys.. .are you people idiots? z hasn’t been removed from the modern day alphabet.. it’s saying that it WAS removed “Around 300 BC, the Roman Censor Appius Claudius Caecus removed z from the alphabet”. See the word ‘was’?

I don’t see my last comment, but I can’t believe how stupid some of you people are. This is clear proof that the American people have descended into idiocy courtesy of the Public School System. Think about it! Dumbed down high school math classes, a country where most people cannot name half the presidents (and when they try to, they often include Benjamin Franklin), and full of twenty-somethings that love playing video games, but can’t go out and get a job, and expect their parents to do everything for them! Truly revolting.

Also, as I can’t say it better myself because someone has already put it in the best words: “@ Hannah Jeckre, @any idiot who agrees with Hannah Jeckre — Are you kidding? “Who cares where the letter z came from?”???!!! Just because you’re ignorant enough to not care about knowledge doesn’t mean everyone else is, too. I, as well as many others, find it fascinating!”
History is what determines the future, so start caring!

Or, more accurately, history sets the stage for the present, which is merely the split second between the past and the future.

@ Briandude “And now the other big question, why do the Brits manage to pronounce it “Zed” when it’s just plain “Z” to almost everyone else? I actually prefer “zeta” to “zed” anyway… and yeah the British (ok, Welsh) Catherine Zeta Jones only helps make me feel even more right — LOL
But to the people that wonder what is going to happen to their favorite words – like “zoo, zero, zebra”, maybe you should have actually read the article before commenting? Though I do wonder how they could have justified removing it so long ago, I mean how else would you spell Zeta (which was obviously around back then) without “Z”?”

By the way, Canadians say it “zed” as well.

People need to listen before they open their mouths. This mindless commenting is clear proof that the American people have descended into idiocy courtesy of the Public School System. Think about it! Dumbed down high school math classes, a country where most people cannot name half the presidents (and when they try to, they often include Benjamin Franklin), and full of twenty-somethings that love playing video games, but can’t go out and get a job, and expect their parents to do everything for them! Truly revolting.

@Lit*y: i agree with you completely. you are all a bunch of dolts if you are commenting with stupid ZZZzzzZZZZzzz remarks . it’s here to stay.

Perhaps if everyone commenting about losing the “Z” would read your article, they would understand. Perhaps.

When will the letter “ñ” will be place in the English alphabet…. I think some spanish or latin words were already accepted in English… :p. Pardon my english geniuses

“Zed” is how “Z” is pronounced in French, which is more than likely the history behind pronunciation of “Z” in other English speaking countries, especially in Canada. At least, that is my assumption without doing any research on the topic.

I love how the first few comments I read after the article asks questions that were clearly explained. Read it. Understand. “Z” is still a valid letter. Shed no tears, you may still say zebra, not ebra or even sebra.

The part I find most interesting is the history of the ampersand. I have always wondered where in the world that symbol would get such a name. Good article! I love linguistics, but have never thought of the stories behind the letters!

that is crazy

what the ZzZzZzZzZzZZZZZZZZZZZzZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzzZZzZZzzzzzzZzzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZz

I think we need to stop paying scientists and people like these, money to do this kind of stuff. Do you know that scientists get paid millions to study how an ant mates? Who the ____ cares? How about giving us a world that can live in peace?

do p next

Hey, im 15 years old. I still use ampersand (&) and replace it with “and” frequently; But removing the letter “z” is the most by far outlandish thing i`ve ever heard. What will zoo, zebra, zealous, zero, zip, zany, zone, realize, breeze, or freeze become ? Yeahhh, very ludicrous indeed. Whoever thought of this, may die in the worst death. That person shall not be praised. The letter q is worst… because that actually could be replaced. for example: quiet, could become kwiet. Not only is there no q, the word looks pretty sweet. but ya know, shit happens. and people act like 404s.

seriolsly people. read the article before making idiotic comments!!!!!!!!!!

if there was a like button to press for the different comments. …. i would have done it ……. i completely agree with the first comment of all.

SERIOUSLY GUYS!!!
The people that have decided to be stupid and are wailing pointlessly about Z not being in the alphabet anymore: THAT HAPPENED A LONG TIME AGO AND WAS THEN REINTRODUCED AGAIN!!! SERIOUSLY PEOPLES HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID??!!! IT STATES CLEARLY THAT “Around 300 BC, the Roman Censor Appius Claudius Caecus removed z from the alphabet…Two hundred years later, z was reintroduced…”

If you can’t read properly you need to see an eye doctor, not submit stupid comments about ‘not having their favorite letter’ and are remarking ‘i hate you stupid scientists!…’ and so on and so forth. And please display your remarkable stupidity elsewhere.

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Not to be in the perceive most of the time, I tend to dont like posts concerning this topic increasingly much more but since you write it in vogue additionally your own way, we have a tendency to gotta say really is really one of these nice post to remember.

what the …

Non Sense what happen to this words

Zebra = Ebra?
Zero = Ero?
Zombie= Ombie?
Zipper = Ipper?
Zoo = Oo?

etc.

Z is awesome
X is dumb

And vat if you haz zis accent

Y U alwayz trying to take away our meaningful thingz. The letter “Z” must remain a letter. What u gonna do with wordZ like “Zinc”, Zero, Z-axis, Zayin, Zappy, Zeeland, Zambia, Zachariahs (that’s a NO-NO), Zwitterion, Zarzamora, Zapatos, Zelch, Zupia, -U make us so “Zozobrar”. – Now, How much will that cost us? Zafo. O-kay! This place is officially a “Zoo”. I just found out the 27th letter iZ an “Amperstand- “&”. And to you Jay-Z U might have 2 change yo name to Jay-Ditty or J-Something Else .Thembleepingtricksters.

Agree with Dumbidamdam’s question regarding the addition of “ñ” to the English alphabet. Don’t expect to see it used for anything other than names but it sure would make a difference in that respect. Can understand going with Jesse in place of Jesus but hate to see names like Muñoz become Munoz, Peña to Pena, Quiñones to Quinones, etc. The letter “w” is not used in the Spanish language but included in their alphabet to deal with foreign names.

Anybody have an idea on how to go about getting the letter included in our alphabet?

Z should be reserved for words that begin with it, and for words like “dizzy”, “fizzy” and “dazzle”. If the Z sound is not at the beginning of a word and is not part of two connecting syllables, then it should be dropped; As in the examples from the article. -ize and -ization. Sterilize = sterilise, organization = organisation. The British have that part covered at least, unlike Americans.

X is another story all together. …And C…Don’t even get me started on the annoying letter C!!

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why?then that means that they just removed 2 letters of the alphabet.

i agree with uptowngirl50. (except the joke part.)

by the way my cousin doesnt believe it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! MY NAME HAS A Z IN IT AND MY BFF CALLS ME ZINNI! I DONT LIKE THE NAME INNI OR TENIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

first, to Sree, on May 24th, I don’t think God made human DNA in actual letters. I think the scientists did that. And, to John, on May 27th, I think, based on your word choice, that you would enjoy the article on the word “Ironic”. And to everyone else, please read the article and make sure you understand it before you comment. Thanks.

I will start calmly. Fully read the ENTIRE article!! Then, don’t go around making stupid posts saying, “Oh My God! Z is GONE” Z is NOT gone! It was removed once in ancient times because people said “r” instead of “z”. Remember, Z is still with us, and if you can’t fully read the article, GET OFF OF YOUR COMPUTER AND GO BACK TO SCHOOL! Congratulations to all you smart people who read the article fully.

I compleatly agree with you Nicholas.

We found a great use for !

We created the Lexercise Z-Screener, a free, online screening test for people (6 yrs. old to adults) that can identify basic decoding problems missed in other types of reading assessments.

The Lexercise Z-Screener uses nonsense words, most of which start with , so the focus is on what is really bedeviling about reading English words: the sound of the “rime” segment (the vowel and its following consonants).

See:
http://www.lexercise.com/dyslexia-services/screen-your-child/

On this comment board, whatever is typed in the “less than”/ “more than” brackets disappears! This is a linguistics convention that us used to differentiate a letter from a speech sound).

Hence, the post above is missing the letter “z” !

So i would say ” Today I went to the _oo to see a _ebra”?

Oh. My. GOD, everyone is apparently extremely illiterate. Can you people READ!?!? NO ONE TOOK Z OUT OF THE ALPHABET!!! They took it out a LONG TIME AGO and PUT IT BACK IN. LEARN TO READ, PEOPLE!!!

Thank god it wasnt still removed today as Z is my favourtie word considering i go ZzZzZzZzZz when all my friends and teachers talk

And I would say, my grandma looks like a _ebra! lol

@Tyler: You epic failed. You ain’t the first.

So wait, does this mean that people used to recite the end of the alphabet “W X Y and Z AND (for the now-defunct ampersand)”… and then just stop there?

How awkward. Here’s to modern times, lol

The biggest deception is to see that people do not read and start to comment based on the title and what they think it might be all about, without reading the text.

The letter Z is not taken away. I W A S taken away for a time in Rome, but then came back.

It is there people and will continue there!!! READ before you COMMENT!

This is cool history!

Let’s start a campaign to simplify the English alphabet. The sounds made by the letter ‘C’ can be made by either the ‘S’ or the ‘K’, so I suggest eliminating the ‘C’ entirely.

Likewise, sounds made by the letter ‘X’ can be made by the letters ‘KS’ (a dipthong, if I am remembering correctly) or ‘Z’ (when at the beginning of a word), so the ‘X’ can be eliminated, as well.

Finally, the letter ‘Q’ is always (to my knowledge) associated with the letter ‘U’ and this sound can be indicated with the letters “KW” (another dipthong), so let’s eliminate ‘Q’, as well.

it was dumb of them

I find it amazing that our ancestors needed 200 years to realize that we all need our Zs.

“C” shouldn’t be a letter. It can sound like a “k”, like in cat which could easily be spelled kat and have the same exact sound. “C” can also sound like an “s” as in cesspool which could also be spelled sesspool and have the same sound. “C” doesn’t have an original sound, it’s just an “s” and a “k” in one letter. Therefore it should be removed.

“C” shouldn’t be a letter. It can sound like a “k”, like in cat which could easily be spelled kat and have the same exact sound. “C” can also sound like an “s” as in cesspool which could also be spelled sesspool and have the same sound. “C” doesn’t have an original sound, it’s just an “s” and a “k” in one letter. Therefore it should be removed. When I was kommenting I posted it the first time and it erased the “c” in my name. So I guess “c” hates me anyway. -Bryce (or Bryse)

I agree with Sam, GIVE ME MY FAVORITE LETTER BACK YOU IDIOT ROMANS

The letter Z is sure quite lonely at the end of the alphabet…

But I am glad the it did not get kicked out!!!

But it would be sad if Z got kicked out!

I ‘z’ wasn’t in the alphabet we wouldn’t change zebra to ebra or zoey to oey we would simply replace the ‘z’ with an ’s’ so zebra= sebra and zoey= soey but they would still be pronounced the same.

Amazing how many painfully illiterate people not only read these articles, but post such agonizingly misconstrued sentences riddled with typos. Shame upon me for thinking that articles on an online dictionary would be frequented by people who know how to actually spell.

As for the article itself; it was an interesting read. I guess Z really is hardly used by the Brits; kudos for Americans keeping the letter in use.

I will now take pride in every z,x,v, and q i use.
why is it the last of everything gets frowned upon? Example.
Z.
Pluto.
Zero.
you might as well say bye bye to purple.

PEOPLE!!!
The letter ‘z’ has not been cast out of the alphabet!
It was over 2000 years ago, but not now!
READ THE ARTICLE PROPERLY PLEASE!!!!

Seriously… !

Good on you Nicholas and Fabbian Ritterborg and anyone else who does not just read the title and/or a few people’s early comments.
Come on!
We know you’ve got a brain, but the million-dollar-question is;
DO YOU USE IT?

NO MORE Z?!?!?! omg so weirdd when are they changeing all the keybords and mobiles!

Most people who have commented have not even read the post. The letter Z is still there people. Also, “zoo” would not be “oo,” but it would be “soo,” along with anything else that uses “z.”

This world is jus fool of people who think they are geniuses jus bcoz they they figured somthing out, well figure this out,

q – o + 966 -pp + / 8- oo * ood ^umbg – kol % kk &h li!!~”"bol =

i wasn’t confused about this until i saw the comments and wondered at how poorly people read.

silly little dumb rascals

I’ll join your club @Dan!

appreciate the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

appreciate the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZ

I’ll join @Dan’s club!!!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

PEOPLE!!!!!!!! The letter Z still exists! Nobody cares if your name has a Z in it! There weren’t names like Zoe or Tenzin(Don’t bring Korra into this) in the times of ancient Greece! I didn’t even read the article and I know that you wouldn’t be typing Z if it wasn’t on your keyboard!

they should stop taking out letters,add more letters.like my mom always say’s “add more letters and don’t remove not one not one.

here’s my opinian don’t take out,add more add.just my opinian

oh by the way you don’t have to make a club to get what you want.
this was interesting so i’ll always come back.
with out z everything would be more compilacated than it is know.

I was intrigued until I read the comments and realized that nobody payed attention to what the article was trying to tell us, as others have stated already. Props @Bnes for flipping out like I was in my head while reading the utterly idiotic comments plastered throughout this feed. I am thoroughly embarrassed to be human at times like this. Stay in school !!!!

I love how half the people who commented didn’t even read the article. Z is still in the alphabet people! It came back 2000 years ago!

Some of you need to read things a little closer. ‘Z’ is still a part of the english alphabet, that’s why we still have words like zoo, and zilch, and zebra. This is the history behind the letter ‘z’ when it was taken away, but it was brought back, and we use it in the english alphabet.

So these are the future humans of our world…..people who can’t read an article, and even if they did, they do not understand it. Seriously these comments are very humiliating and discouraging. Does no one learn anything now?

Sree
imagine if we only have 4 letters, you wont have a name

I wonder why brtish pronounce “z” as zed and americans zee.

Can someone enlighten me please.

I don’t understand why, in every article that mentions Americans being different than other English speaking countries in some way, Americans instantly get called stupid and incapable in the comments! Our country may not be known for being land of the intelligent, but not all people here are stupid. We spell our words differently, and it is not our fault. We grew up learning these words that way because a man named Daniel Webster decided that America needed a more “independent” language way back in our nation’s younger years, and worked with some people to create a dictionary of “American” spelling. We do not all gather each year and decide that British spelling is horrible and continually choose to change words of the Brit’s original creation — which was technically not their original creation, because its original forms were brought about through the Germanic tribes, but there is credit to be given — just because we are ignorant and don’t want to listen to you. There have been many smart Americans in history, and you cannot label who is intelligent by if they have memorized our presidents! Memorization is by far not intelligence, it is instead the lowest form of learning, so much so that it is barely considered learning.

I constantly find myself comparing America’s difference in language to that of Switzerland, or even Austria. They both have variations of the “original” German in Germany, and yet they are given no grief. Even when Swiss-German can at times be incomprehensible by German speakers in Germany due to its differences, especially in the way it sounds. Why is America the only country picked on? Because we are not in Europe? Because we are stereotyped as a fat and unintelligent nation full of rich snobs? I even find people talking about how bigoted the people here are (a huge stereotype, that is so widely untrue these days it is not even funny) using these mass stereotypes themselves. So, you can stereotype people from America, but not other countries, and especially not your own? Somethings I heard specifically on this article: 20+ year olds in school? Extremely uncommon– I have never seen one. Video game lovers? Sure, they’re there, but they don’t dominate the student body. @an Australian, “you Yanks sure do have a habit of acting like you own the bloomin’ language. Which you don’t.” We don’t own it, and we know it. We just have our own variation of it that naturally occurs when living in a country an ocean’s length away. @Da Dawg Dude, “This mindless commenting is clear proof that the American people have descended into idiocy courtesy of the Public School System.” After what else you said, this is a sudden conclusion that has no basis what-so-ever. You are throwing in the assumption that each of the comments that is less than intelligent here must be from an American.

I see this all over the internet, without a single person stepping up and saying something in America’s favor other than people from America. I find it truly sad, and people saying things like this create one of the reasons why I feel ashamed to be American.

Other than Z, what is the other letter that comes directly from Greek and not Etruscan?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzz

I love that half these comments are people who didn’t read the article and think that it’s a modern thing, like z just recently got voted out.

Zzz…
Falling asleep

The letter z is still in the alphebet you stupid ass retards

@Bnes Thank you for saying exactly what I was thinking. I’m scrolling through all these comments of people saying “Omg y is Z being takin out of da alphabet!!!!11 now my name isnt the saaaaame!” Apparently people these days need to learn how to actually read something before opening their big mouths. The ignorance and lack of attention people have now days is quite disappointing. Not to mention that people think a letter that is used in so many words these days is actually going to be removed. Stupidity at its best.

P.S. I’m sure if a letter WAS to be removed from the alphabet, you’d hear about it on the news. Not dictionary.com. Just saying.

isnt X used less than Z?

So zoo is no “oo” and zipper is now “ipper” and bees will now go “bu”, and one of Nintendo’s famous games will be The Legend of Elda? Are you kidding me?!? Why does it matter how much a letter is used as long as it’s there when we do need it? I guess X will be next, and there will be just ylophones to play and -rays at the hospital. Ztupid!

Ooo, I know !!! Since “E” is the most used letter in the alphabet let’s start using it even MORE! Even if it looks stupid and makes NO sense! Yes, I AM going insane. Eeps, E meen, goeng enseen! *laughs hysterically* 8D

its a good knowledge at least i would proudly write my name which starts from Z because Z came into English world disputatiously …

that is so cool i can show off to my English teacher now who probably will pretend to know this

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/letter-z-removal-hoax.shtml

It’s so stupid how many people didn’t read the article carefully and thinks that “z” was removed from the current, modern English alphabet. It was removed from the GREEK alphabet thousands of years ago cause it was just so common. ALL the “z”s in modern English still stands ok people?
Geez… you read like you’re blind.

You can’t take ‘z’ out now. What I doodle? A sleeping man always has zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz coming out his mouth!!!

[...] the alphabet by the Roman Censor Claudius Appius Caecus.  According to an interesting article at dictionary.com : His justification was that z had become archaic: the pronunciation of /z/ had become /r/ by a [...]

You can’t take ‘z’ out now. What I doodle? A sleeping man always has zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz coming out his mouth!!!

To be perfectly honest, I’m glad the letter “Z” was added once more to the alphabet. The article didn’t say that “Z” is now extinct, it said that it was thousands of years ago. There are so many words that contain “Z”!
-zoo
-zebra
-zero
-zone
-organize
-visualize
-analyze
-sneeze
-size
-zap
-criticize
-amazing
-memorize
The list could go on for a while! “Z” is an important letter and we use it daily whether we *realize* it or not.

so now my name will be ach? lol

seriously? they didnt take it out now. the romans took it out of the LATIN alphabet over 2000 years ago, and then it was reintroduced 200 years later. so no, your precious z has not been *recently* removed from the alphabet.

I am not a linguistic expert, but in my humble opinion, J,Q & Z are less used words, with J or Q having an equal probability of occurence, while Z appears more than both the alphabets.

If J and Q are still existing, we shouldn’t worry about Z for now.

Me is inzulted…

whoever took z out the alphabet is crazy u scientist r mad

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh z is awesome

I say we should get rid of “Z.” We do barely use it, and 25 is a much nicer number than 26. There’s no reason we can’t use “S” instead. And while we’re at it, let’s throw out “Q”! Use the “K.” This will free up space for a much more practical letter, something to represent the “ing” that we use so often. Get these letters gone, I say. They’re not used enough to be practical, and the only big loss will be those triple-word, hundred-point moves on Scrabble.

Seriously LOLing like a madwoman at all the reading comprehension-challenged posts complaining about “Z” being removed from the alphabet.

Z IS STILL PART OF THE ALPHABET. It was removed over 2300 YEARS AGO by a Roman official, and reinstated later! Learn how to read, seriously! I know that the USA lags behind a lot of countries in “book smarts,” but this is just ridiculous!

“z” is not my favourite word and I don’t like it either…..
secondly, I did.’t ever know that & is used as an alphabet…..I always thought that its a conjunction.

Wow, this was an interesting article. I knew about the ampersand, but not that the letter ‘z’ was removed and then reinstated back into the alphabet. BTW, it isn’t being removed now, just so you know. That was a long time ago….

Too bad! Z was some sort of a neutral number, but still is part of the alphabet! Just think of all the words that have a z in it…=[

Whoops, i meant neutral letter

So “Z” Is used less than “X”?

So the truth is that Z is used less?!?!?!

So, Z is apparently used less than X???? Wow………..why the fart did I even ever read this???!?!?!?! Ha ha…….I’m not even a Z fanatic! I’m an X fanatic!!!!

hahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Hey Gabriel .L

But wait, if the letter “Z” was removed, what do we call a zebra? An overgrown goat with black and white stripes on it?

(sorry, i like the letter z, but i just cant resist putting this face on)
((If the face doesnt show, sorry))

ya, the face doesnt show

Aw, they can’t get rid of the letter Z. Even lazy people use it.

so… zendaya is endaya???????

They couldn’t have gotten rid of z! Lazy people use it when they don’t want to spell their words correctly! But I though x was the most in frequently used letter? Oh well.

If Z is gone then all the words will be changed and on top of that you will have to rewrite the dictionary again!!!!

I don’t think many of you actually read the article. Z was not removed from the alphabet recently.. they’re talking about a completely different era. Read the article again, and this time shut out your thoughts while doing so.

letter “Z” we miss you.

I don’t think many of you actually read the article. Z was not removed from the alphabet recently.. they’re talking about a completely different era. Read the article again, and this time THINK AGAIN BEFORE DOING SO!

I don’t think many of you actually read the article. Z was not removed from the alphabet recently.. they’re talking about the PAST. Read the article again, and this time THINK AGAIN BEFORE DOING SO!http://hotword.dictionary.com/z/comment-page-26/#comment-92792

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Sorry letter z! Learn why z was removed from the alphabet, and what now-extinct letter used to be No. 27
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What letter is used most rarely in English? Poor lonely z finishes up the alphabet at number 26. The final letter, z’s history includes a time when it was so infrequently used that it was removed altogether.

The Greek zeta is the origin of the humble z. The Phoenician glyph zayin, meaning “weapon,” had a long vertical line capped at both ends with shorter horizontal lines and looked very much like a modern capital I.

By the time it evolved into the Greek zeta the top and bottom lines had become elongated and the vertical line slanted, connecting to the horizontal lines at the top right and the bottom left.

Around 300 BC, the Roman Censor Appius Claudius Caecus removed z from the alphabet. His justification was that z had become archaic: the pronunciation of /z/ had become /r/ by a process called rhotacism, rendering the letter z useless. At the same time that z was removed, g was added, but that’s another story.

Two hundred years later, z was reintroduced to the Latin alphabet but used only in words taken from Greek. Because of its absence and reintroduction, zeta is one of the only two letters to enter the Latin alphabet directly from Greek and not Etruscan.

Z was not always the final letter of the modern English alphabet, although it has always been in the 26th position. For years the & symbol (now known as the ampersand) was the final, pronounced “and” but recited with the Latin “per se,” meaning “by itself.” The position and pronunciation eventually ran together, with “X, Y, Z, and per se and” becoming “X, Y, Z, ampersand.”

Z is the most rarely used letter in the alphabet; however, American English uses it more often than British English. Early English did not have a z but used s for both voiced and unvoiced sibilants. Words in English that originated as loan words from French and Latin are more likely to be spelled with a z than an s. Also, American standardization modified /z/ suffixes to more accurately reflect their pronunciation, changing –ise and –isation to –ize and –ization.

Here at the end of the alphabet, let’s jump to the beginning: Not only did the letter a used to look different, but it sounded different as well. Learn these facts as well as the animal that inspired the letter, here.

here’s that story if you( I MEAN YOU HAVEN’T READ THE STORY)

if you actually read the article it states words that had Z in it would be pronounced with an S instead of a Z so no. Also we aren’t speaking latin right now, so it doesn’t even affect us.

Scientists should not be blame because they just only change and study English. It’s the Literature scholars,so don’t blame them.

HOW COULD THEY TAKE OUT “Z”?!?!?! IT’S SUCH A COOL LETTER!!

:O

zzzzzzzz
z
z
z
zzzzzzz

They did take out the letter Z. But it was not us, it was the Romans. So, for all the readers who didn’t read the article very clearly, we still have our precious 26th letter.

z!

First Pluto, then Indigo, now Z?! This is madness!!!!

The UK is changing their language in an attempt to wipe Zion off the map and they do not have the final say and should beware;

The Bible is filled with z words and on the very last page is written:
Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city (Zion), and from the things which are written in this book.

I can’t even write my name anymore? I have to be Eliabeth instead of Elizabeth? How will I live with this?

thiz iz ztupid! let uz haz a Z revolution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dont u people get it a lot of people told u that z was removed from the alphabet at 300 BC, then was put back 200 years later. Again, Z WAS REMOVED FROM THE ALPHABET AT 300 BC, THEN PUT BACK 200 YEARS LATER. That’s like, forever ago!

A lot of people don make any sense here, I mean, zoo is still zoo, Zoe is still Zoe, nicknames that are z are still z, etc. If all u people read the article CAREFULLY, then u will get it!
P.S. My name is Cemre and I’m from Turkey. I know that my name sounds weird.
P.P.S. Z RULZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think we use z more than x if takign any out by goodness take x out

In Portuguese the letter Z is used to means derivation from a djective to a noun: belo/beleza. In the word luz/lua/lunar/luminescente the letter Z marks the end o radical.

move the down scroll to the right, dont ask me why

a

lol, even though z might not be taken away,people should take away x, THAT is barely used

p.s. when i wrote a that was just an accident

why why why why dont take no letters for the alphabet

Okay, that’s incredibly dumb! I love the letter Z, it has a significance in intricate pronunciation and is a constant reflection in how important that is to the English language. I’d much rather get rid of the letter C! It’s only use is in words with CH. But that could be replaced by Z, raising the important of both Z and K. Words with ZH exist in other countries as a CH sound, and that would help other countries to understand our language better with a middle man like ZH instead of CH. The letter C is useless with K and Z there…

you Nimrods….READ the article. It’s talking about how Z was removed from the alphabet IN THE PAST in ANCIENT TIMES by a ROMAN EMPEROR. No one removed it from our current alphabet.
Use your brains, please.

BUT MY NAME STARTS WITH A Z !!! SO IT IS NOW ARA

This is the longest discussion I had ever saw. Espically over a single letter………

This comment section is appalling. Do people even learn anything in school these days? They can’t spell, they can’t read an article, and all they do is get all up in arms because their “favorite letter” is being taken out of the alphabet (when it’s not). Who the hell has a favorite letter anyway? It’s just a letter for goodness sake.

Learn to read!

I love Z it sounds cool and I shall use it I don’t care whether it is not a part of the alphabet so whatever. I use it in French and English!Z is like one of the coolest sounding letters so Zorro is out of this building!

So, is that why at the end of the alphabet, it sings” x,y and z” & is always there at the end of a keyboard and stuff. cool !

I’m amazed at how many people just read the title of the article, but not the article itself, then proceeded to freak out and post angry comments about how the letter Z is being removed from the alphabet (when it’s not). Also, several of the comments complained about the article not telling us what the 27th letter of the alphabet used to be (which it did: &). What does this tell us about reading comprehension? Seriously, it’s worrisome to think such a large amount of people are really this ignorant.

Anyways, very interesting article! If you didn’t actually read it, you should.

So apparently, most of you didnt actually read the article. Z is a letter NOW, but i was removed from the alphabet thousands of years ago and then reintroduced approximately 200 years later. Read the article, not just the title!

I agree CROOSTER Z is so cool my bff name is Zaira so that would mean her name is now aira and zoo is oo and zap is app

Z RULES SCREW YOU SCIENCETISTS NOW THE ALPHABAT GOES ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWX AND Y IF I WAS Z I’D BE LIKE ” YO MR. SICENCETIST PUT ME BACK IN THE ALPHABAT YOU-”

y remove z When no one uses X Grrrrr I lov Z and F and D and S and C and L and V and m ohhhhhh Did i say i luv Z

READ THE ARTICLE AGAIN, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

Non of yall got them right to remove po wittle zzzzzZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzZz from tham alphabet

Z is awesome. Its in my last name. And that & symbol is hard to draw! Plus, I can say the alphabet backwards which starts with Z! And people should be proud of that letter! Its how you start Zayn Malik’s name! FROM 1D!!!!! TEAM ZZZZ! I love Zs. Cuz sleep is a beautiful thing…. Ugh… My comments long. PEACE OUT HOME SKILLET CHEERIOS!!!!! XD

oh ya? well then why can i say the entire alphabet without missing z?
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
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ HAHAHAHHAHAH TAKE THAT ARTICAL THAT SAYS Z IS NOT A REAL LETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>:)

man, my last name is messed up! Zzylopt!? BUT IM GERMAN!!!

The letter ‘z’ has not been removed from the alphabet, people, stop freaking out. If you read the article carefully, you will realize that it explains a time when the letter ‘z’ WAS excluded from the alphabet. It is NOT at the present time removed.

*”Not only did the letter ‘a’ USE to look different”

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Wow, I can’t believe just how many people seem to think that the letter “z” is being taken out of our alphabet as of now. It’s not hard to actually READ the article and discover that it’s talking about something that happened over two millennia ago. It’s also ironic to see how many seemingly illiterate people read things on Dictionary.com!

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz…& ?????????????????????? That’s just a mouthful!!!

My name is Mizhelle…Every and then i introduced my name to my students, by using the “American Alphabet”….So does it mean my name is Mihelle now? sounds like I`m in hell without letter “z” in my name.!!!!!!!!

This is such a joke.
They should clarify the title.

And for those who did not read the article or look through the previous comments, “z” is still in the alphabet. It said that “Around 300 BC, the Roman Censor Appius Claudius Caecus removed z from the alphabet.”

I dont want Z to be removed from the alphbet.

Find two lowercase z’s! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Slinky on April 6, 2013 at 5:01 pm
“Wow, I can’t believe just how many people seem to think that the letter “z” is being taken out of our alphabet as of now. It’s not hard to actually READ the article and discover that it’s talking about something that happened over two millennia ago.”

It’s depressing. And I bet some of those people were educated decades ago, so we can’t blame modern education for it all.