B (letter)

B, b is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the second letter of most variants, being placed after A and before C, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈbiː], like bee and be.

Use in English

	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
Use in English
Alphabetical word list
Retroalphabetical list
Common misspellings

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b is usually a voiced bilabial stop, the unvoiced equivalent of p: bíg, bág, bát, bún, beaûty, bôth, Albânia, câble, tâble, Bâbel, Róbert, bòunce, ábstract, hërb, distürb, abhŏr, sâbre, câber, bít, túb, bábble.

• The accents show stress and pronunciation (see English spellings): A: sát, mâde, pàrk, cāst (cást/càst), åll, ãir; E: ére, êar, vèin, fërn; I: sít, mîne, skì, bïrd; O: sóng, môde, lòve, wörd, ŏr; OO: moôn, foòt; U: sún, mûse, fùll, pürr; W: neŵ, ẁant; Y: gým, mŷ, keỳ, mÿrrh.

It is doubled after short vowels: ébb, fíbber, rábble, góbble, rúbble, clúbber, Débbie, clúbbed, drúbbing - but not when written as a double vowel: doúble, troúble.

It begins consonant clusters: bréad, ábdicate, abhŏr, abjûre, óblong, ábnegate, breâk, absürd, abscónd, abstâin, ábstract.

b is silent in two positions: final, after m: lámb, cômb, thúmb, límb, clîmb, dúmb, thúmb and tomb (which rhymes with doôm) and occasionally before t: dòubt, súbtle, débt.

Burma and Bombay, Belarus and Beijing

Or should that be Myanmar and Mumbai (new names for the first pair), Byelorussia and Peking (old names of the latter)?

Unsurprisingly, none of the new names has yet attained a single established pronunciation. Bürma has become Myánmar, or perhaps Mêeanmar or even Mŷ-. Bombây is now Mumbài, or Mùmbài or even Múmbài. Byelorússian, better known as White Rússia, is Belarùs or Belarûs (Bélla Roôse?). And Pekíng is now either Beijíng or Beizhing.

Scientific uses

• B is the symbol for the chemical element boron.
• B: magnetic field vector