nonalphabetical
|non-al-pha-bet-i-cal|
🇺🇸
/nɑnˌælfəˈbɛtɪkəl/
🇬🇧
/nɒnˌælfəˈbɛtɪkəl/
not in/using the alphabet
Etymology
'nonalphabetical' is formed in modern English by the negative prefix 'non-' + 'alphabetical'. The prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non') means 'not', and 'alphabetical' relates to 'alphabet'.
'alphabetical' derives from 'alphabet', which comes from Late Latin 'alphabetum' and Greek 'alphabētos' (from 'alpha' + 'beta'). The modern English adjective 'alphabetical' developed from these earlier terms; adding the productive English prefix 'non-' produced 'nonalphabetical'.
Initially the root 'alphabet' referred to the set of letters (from the names 'alpha' and 'beta'); over time 'alphabetical' came to describe order or relation to those letters, and 'nonalphabetical' developed to mean 'not in that order' or 'not using alphabetic letters'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
not arranged in alphabetical order; not ordered according to the alphabet.
The contact list was nonalphabetical, so it took longer to locate a name.
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Antonyms
Adjective 2
not composed of or not using alphabetic letters (e.g., using symbols, numbers, or logograms instead).
Some filenames were nonalphabetical, containing emojis and special symbols.
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Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/08/19 03:52