b C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary US /ˈbi/ UK /ˈbiː/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun the second letter of the English alphabet Her surname began with a capital B. Appears in Proverbs (1) See all If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with B.S. Etymology AI details The second letter of the Latin alphabet, derived from Greek beta, itself from the Phoenician letter bet ('house'). bēta Ancient Greek View etymology graph -> Topics General Vocabulary External links Google Images Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary # b **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ˈbi/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈbiː/ ## Meanings 1. the second letter of the English alphabet ## Examples - Her surname began with a capital B. ## Roots and Affixes - Root: bēta ## Etymology The second letter of the Latin alphabet, derived from Greek beta, itself from the Phoenician letter bet ('house'). ## AI Etymology b has the etymological history: The second letter of the Latin alphabet, derived from Greek beta, itself from the Phoenician letter bet ('house'). The formation is best read through the historical forms named above, with the modern spelling preserving the outcome of that older derivational path. In modern use, the noun sense is "the second letter of the English alphabet", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The principal historical forms in the chain include Ancient Greek bēta, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material. ## Topics - General Vocabulary markdown