Z

26th and last letter in the English and other modern alphabets. In English its sound is a voiced alveolar fricative. It is used initially and medially in many words of Greek or Oriental origin, and many writers use it instead of s in such words as ‘baptize’ and ‘organize’, where the suffix is derived from the Greek. Zeta (Ζ, ζ) was the sixth letter in the classical Greek alphabet.

The name of the letter is ‘zed’ in Britain, but ‘zee’ in the USA.

In the North Semitic alphabet it was the seventh letter. The Etruscans adopted it from the Greeks, and the Romans from the Etruscans. The letter was later dropped from the Latin alphabet, and the letter g, created 312 BC, was put in its place. After the Roman conquest of Greece in the 2nd century BC, Greek words were borrowed by the Latin language, and a new symbol z was adopted from the Greek alphabet in order to be used in the transliteration of Greek words. It was placed at the end of the Latin alphabet, from which it has been transferred to alphabets of western, southern, northern, and central Europe.

Z

In physics, the symbol for impedance (electricity and magnetism).