The eighteenth letter of the alphabet: called عَيْنٌ. It is [one of the letters termed مَجْهُورَة, or vocal, i. e. pronounced with the voice, not with the breath only; and] of the letters termed حَلْقِيَّة [or faucial]; these being ع and ح and ه and خ and غ [and أ]; the lowest of which in its place of utterance is ع; wherefore Kh [in the composition of his lexicon entitled “Kitáb el-ʼEyn”] and several other lexicographers [after him] began their books with [words having] this letter [in their roots], giving the next place to ح, the next to ه, the next to خ, and the next to غ. (L, TA.) It is substituted for ء [in what is termed the عَنْعَنَة of Temeem]; as in عَنْ for أَنْ: and for ح; as in عَتَّى for حَتَّى, and صُبْعٌ for صُبْحٌ: and for غ; as in عُلَامٌ for غُلَامٌ. (MF, TA.) It is never consociated with ح in any word of which the letters are all radicals; unless it be a word compounded of two words, as حَيْعَلَ from حَىَّ عَلَى. (Kh, TA.)

[As a numeral, it denotes Seventy.]