O
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
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History
The letter was derived from the Semitic 'Ajin (eye) which represented a consonant, probably the pharyngeal consonant (IPA ʕ) similar to the Arabic letter ع called 'Ajn', but in Greek (Omicron), Etruscan and Latin it came to be used for the vowel /o/.
Usage
O is most commonly associated with the oʊ. In English, though, O has a short value which maps to ɒ (ɑ in parts of North America), while the long value tends to a diphthong of /o/ and ʊ. Common digraphs include OO (inconsistently with the sound ʊ or /u/), OI (usually a diphthong of ɔ and ɪ), as well as OA, OE, and OU with a variety of pronunciations depending on context.
Other languages use O for various values, usually back vowels which are at least partly open. Derived letters such as Ö and Ø have been created by some languages to distinguish values that were not present in Latin and Greek, particularly rounded front vowels.
Alternative representations
Oscar represents the letter O in the NATO phonetic alphabet. In the International phonetic alphabet, [o] represents the close-mid back rounded vowel.
Meanings for O
In medicine, O (also, O+ or O-) is one of the human blood types.
In chemistry, O stands for oxygen.
In Normandy, O is a well-known and picturesque château. See Château d'O.
O is also a symbol for a hug, as in love notes. (See Hugs and Kisses.)
O is also the nickname of a magazine founded by Oprah Winfrey, more formally called O, The Oprah Magazine.
O may refer to the 2002 album by Damien Rice, see O (album).
O is also a movie.
O is a family name in Japanese; see O (name).
Story of O is a French erotic novel.
In economics, O is usually used to represent output.
In Windows, Ctrl-O, and Mac OS, Command-O, opens a file.
"O" is the name of a production show by Cirque du Soleil at the Bellagio (hotel and casino) in Las Vegas.
Big O notation is, in mathematics and computer science, used to describe the asymptotic behavior of a function or algorithm.
See also
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bs:O ca:O cs:O da:Oel:O es:O eo:O fr:O gl:O ia:O it:O la:O nl:O ja:O ko:O nb:O nn:O pl:O pt:O ro:O simple:O sl:O fi:O sv:O vi:O yo:O zh:O sn:O
