O

O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled o (pronounced /oʊ/), plural usually o's or os; sometimes oes.

The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin (eye), which represented a consonant, probably the voiced pharyngeal fricative (IPA: [ʕ]), the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a similar Egyptian hieroglyph for "eye".