Alphabet vs. Font — What's the Difference?

An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written symbols or graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllable, for instance, and logographic systems use characters to represent words, morphemes, or other semantic units.The first fully phonemic script, the Proto-Canaanite script, later known as the Phoenician alphabet, is considered to be the first alphabet, and is the ancestor of most modern alphabets, including Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and possibly Brahmic.

In metal typesetting, a font was a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font was a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph, and a typeface consisting of a range of fonts that shared an overall design.

The letters of a language, arranged in the order fixed by custom.

A receptacle in a church for the water used in baptism, typically a free-standing stone structure.

A system of characters or symbols representing sounds or things.

A reservoir for oil in an oil lamp.

A set of basic parts or elements

A source of a desirable quality or commodity; a fount

The set of letters used when writing in a language.

A set of type of one particular face and size

A writing system in which letters represent phonemes. Contrast e.g. logography, a writing system in which each character represents a word, and syllabary, in which each character represents a syllable.

A basin for holding baptismal water in a church.

A writing system in which there are letters for the consonant and vowel phonemes. Contrast e.g. abjad.

A receptacle for holy water; a stoup.

(computer science) A typically finite set of distinguishable symbols.

The oil reservoir in an oil-burning lamp.

An individual letter of an alphabet; an alphabetic character.

An abundant source; a fount

The simplest rudiments; elements.

A complete set of type of one size and face.

An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or another such government agency.

(Christianity) A receptacle in a church for holy water, especially one used in baptism.

(rare) To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.

A receptacle for oil in a lamp.

The letters of a language arranged in the customary order; the series of letters or signs which form the elements of written language.

(figuratively) Spring, source, fountain.

The simplest rudiments; elements.

(typography) A set of glyphs of unified design, belonging to one typeface (e.g., Helvetica), style (e.g., italic), and weight (e.g., bold). Usually representing the letters of an alphabet and its supplementary characters.

To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.

In metal typesetting, a set of type sorts in one size.

A character set that includes letters and is used to write a language

In phototypesetting, a set of patterns forming glyphs of any size, or the film they are stored on.

The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural);

In digital typesetting, a set of glyphs in a single style, representing one or more alphabets or writing systems, or the computer code representing it.

A typeface.

A computer file containing the code used to draw and compose the glyphs of one or more typographic fonts on a computer display or printer.

(figuratively) A source, wellspring, fount.

To overlay (text) on the picture.

A complete assortment of printing type of one size, including a due proportion of all the letters in the alphabet, large and small, points, accents, and whatever else is necessary for printing with that variety of types; a fount.

A fountain; a spring; a source.

A basin or stone vessel in which water is contained for baptizing.

A specific size and style of type within a type family

Bowl for baptismal water