d

Abbreviation for day; diameter; died; in the UK, d was the symbol for a penny (Latin denarius) until decimalization of the currency in 1971.

D

Abbreviation for 500, in the Roman numeral system.

D

Fourth letter of the English alphabet; it corresponds to the Semitic daleth, the Arabic dal, and the Greek delta (Δ, δ). The /d/ sound is a voiced alveolar plosive.

The Etruscans had no use for the letter, but the Romans borrowed their script from them before the Etruscans had rejected it. The shape of D was gradually modified; in the Semitic alphabet it was an irregular triangle (at an earlier stage, with a tail added to the right) and became a regular triangle in the Greek delta. In the Roman alphabet it became a rounded D.

D

In music, the second note, or supertonic, of the scale of C major.

D

In music, abbreviation for Deutsch; D followed by a number (for example, D956) indicates the listing of a work by Schubert in the thematic catalogue by Otto Erich Deutsch.

d

In music, the tonic note in any key in tonic sol-fa notation, pronounced ‘doh’.