C vs. A — What's the Difference?

General-purpose programming language:

Mathematical variable.

Procedural programming support:

Article.

Syntax foundation:

Grade symbol.

Low-level access to memory:

Musical note.

Compiled language:

First letter of the English alphabet.

C, or c, is the third letter in the English and ISO basic Latin alphabets. Its name in English is cee (pronounced ), plural cees.

A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is a (pronounced ), plural aes.

The third letter of the alphabet.

Used when mentioning someone or something for the first time in a text or conversation

A shape like that of a letter C

Used to indicate membership of a class of people or things

The first note of the diatonic scale of C major, the major scale having no sharps or flats.

In, to, or for each; per (used when expressing rates or ratios)

The Roman numeral for 100.

The first letter of the alphabet.

A computer programming language originally developed for implementing the Unix operating system.

A shape like that of a capital A

A widely used programming language.

The sixth note of the diatonic scale of C major. The A above middle C is usually used as the basis for tuning and in modern music has a standard frequency of 440 Hz.

The third letter of the modern English alphabet.

The first letter of the modern English alphabet.

Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter c.

Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter a.

The third in a series.

The first in a series.

Something shaped like the letter C.

Something shaped like the letter A.

C The third best or third highest in quality or rank

A The best or highest in quality or rank

The first tone in the scale of C major or the third tone in the relative minor scale.

The sixth tone in the scale of C major or the first tone in the relative minor scale.

A key or scale in which the tone of C is the tonic.

A key or scale in which A is the tonic.

A written or printed note representing this tone.

A written or printed note representing this tone.

A string, key, or pipe tuned to the pitch of this tone.

A string, key, or pipe tuned to the pitch of this tone.

A widely used object-oriented programming language based on C.

In every; to each; per

Alternative form of c.

To do with separation; In, into.

Alternative form of c.

To do with time; Each, per, in, on, by.

C is the third letter of the English alphabet. It is from the Latin letter C, which in old Latin represented the sounds of k, and g (in go); its original value being the latter. In Anglo-Saxon words, or Old English before the Norman Conquest, it always has the sound of k. The Latin C was the same letter as the Greek

To do with status; In.

The keynote of the normal or "natural" scale, which has neither flats nor sharps in its signature; also, the third note of the relative minor scale of the same.

(archaic) To do with position or direction; In, on, at, by, towards, onto.

As a numeral, C stands for Latin centum or 100, CC for 200, etc.

(archaic) To do with process, with a passive verb; In the course of, experiencing.

A degree on the Centigrade scale of temperature

(archaic) To do with an action, an active verb; Engaged in.

The speed at which light travels in a vacuum; the constancy and universality of the speed of light is recognized by defining it to be exactly 299,792,458 meters per second

(archaic) To do with an action/movement; To, into.

One of the four nucleotides used in building DNA; all four nucleotides have a common phosphate group and a sugar (ribose)

(obsolete) To do with method; In, with.

A base found in DNA and RNA and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with guanine

(obsolete) To do with role or capacity; In.

An abundant nonmetallic tetravalent element occurring in three allotropic forms: amorphous carbon and graphite and diamond; occurs in all organic compounds

Of.

Ten 10s

Have.

A unit of electrical charge equal to the amount of charge transferred by a current of 1 ampere in 1 second

He, or sometimes she, it. en

A general-purpose programing language closely associated with the UNIX operating system

All.

The 3rd letter of the Roman alphabet

All.

Street names for cocaine

The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from the first letter ( ) of the Phœnician alphabet, the equivalent of the Hebrew Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was a consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to represent their vowel Alpha with the ä sound, the Phœnician alphabet having no vowel symbols.

Being ten more than ninety

The name of the sixth tone in the model major scale (that in C), or the first tone of the minor scale, which is named after it the scale in A minor. The second string of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble staff. - A sharp (A$) is the name of a musical tone intermediate between A and B. - A flat (A$) is the name of a tone intermediate between A and G.

An adjective, commonly called the indefinite article, and signifying one or any, but less emphatically.

In each; to or for each; as, "twenty leagues a day", "a hundred pounds a year", "a dollar a yard", etc.

Of.

A barbarous corruption of have, of he, and sometimes of it and of they.

An expletive, void of sense, to fill up the meter

In; on; at; by.

In process of; in the act of; into; to; - used with verbal substantives in -ing which begin with a consonant. This is a shortened form of the preposition an (which was used before the vowel sound); as in a hunting, a building, a begging.

A metric unit of length equal to one ten billionth of a meter (or 0.0001 micron); used to specify wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation

Any of several fat-soluble vitamins essential for normal vision; prevents night blindness or inflammation or dryness of the eyes

One of the four nucleotides used in building DNA; all four nucleotides have a common phosphate group and a sugar (ribose)

(biochemistry) purine base found in DNA and RNA; pairs with thymine in DNA and with uracil in RNA

The basic unit of electric current adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites;

The 1st letter of the Roman alphabet

C is widely used for system and application development, offering close-to-hardware operations.

Without additional context, A does not refer to a recognized programming language.

While not common, C can be used in web development, particularly for backend services requiring high performance.

C's low-level features make it challenging for beginners, though it offers a strong foundation in programming concepts.

Yes, as a variable, "A" can represent values or concepts within programs.

As a grade, it represents excellence; it may also be used to introduce alphabetical or numerical concepts.

C provides manual memory management through pointers and memory allocation functions.

C does not support object-oriented programming directly; it's a procedural language.

Its compilation into machine language and low-level capabilities make C extremely fast.

While not necessary, understanding C can provide a solid foundation for C++ or Java.

"A" can serve as a variable or placeholder, but its significance depends on specific usage.

It often serves as a variable or constant in equations and formulas.

C++ and Java are among the languages significantly influenced by C.

Yes, C is compatible with virtually all modern operating systems.

Yes, languages like Assembly, Ada, and ActionScript start with 'A'.