In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “fifteenth letter in many abjad alphabets”. Today it says “fifteenth letter of the semitic abjads”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “fifteenth letter in many abjad alphabets”. Today it says “fifteenth letter of the semitic abjads”.
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The opening as it read in 2005
Samekh or Simketh is the fifteenth letter in many abjad alphabets, including Phoenician , Hebrew , and Aramaic .1The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Chi (Χ) and Xi (Ξ), and Latin X . v t e2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17869652.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Samekh or Simketh is the fifteenth letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician , Hebrew , and Aramaic , representing /s/ .The Arabic alphabet , however, uses a letter based on Phoenician šin to represent /s/ (see there); however, that glyph takes Samekh's place in the traditional Abjadi order of the Arabic alphabet. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Xi (Ξ, ξ). . The Arabic alphabet has no glyph of this origin. sīn , derived from Shin , takes its place in abjadi order .On Semitic Words in Greek and Latin .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 356468089.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Samekh or Simketh is the fifteenth letter of many Semitic abjads , including Phoenician Ṣāmek , Hebrew ˈSamekh ס , Aramaic Semkath , Syriac Semkaṯ ܣ , representing /s/ . The Arabic alphabet , however, uses a letter based on Phoenician Šīn to represent /s/ (see there); however, that glyph takes Samekh's place in the traditional Abjadi order of the Arabic alphabet. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Xi (Ξ, ξ). The Arabic alphabet has no glyph of this origin. sīn , derived from Shin , takes its place in abjadi order . On Semitic Words in Greek and Latin .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 662521554.
The opening as it stood in 2020 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Samekh (Phoenician sāmek 𐤎 ; Hebrew samekh , Syriac semkaṯ ) is the fifteenth letter of the Semitic abjads , including the Hebrew alphabet .Samekh represents a voiceless alveolar fricative / s / .Unlike most Semitic consonants, the pronunciation of /s/ remains constant between vowels and before voiced consonants.The numerical value of samekh is 60.The letter has no continuant in the Arabic alphabet , its numerical value is taken by Arabic Šīn .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 946465714.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Semitic abjad Samekh is the fifteenth letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician sāmek 𐤎, Hebrew sāmeḵ ס, Aramaic samek 𐡎, and Syriac semkaṯ ܣ. Samekh represents a voiceless alveolar fricative / s / . In the Hebrew language, the samekh has the same pronunciation as the left-dotted shin . The numerical value of samekh is 60.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1177013763.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Semitic abjad Samekh or samech is the fifteenth letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician sāmek 𐤎, Hebrew sāmeḵ ס , Aramaic samek 𐡎, and Syriac semkaṯ ܣ. Samekh is the only letter of the Semitic abjad that has no surviving descendant in the Arabic alphabet ; however, it was present in the Nabataean alphabet , the Arabic alphabet's immediate predecessor, as the letter simkath , which was related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪏 and South Arabian 𐩯 . The numerical value of samekh is 60. Samekh represents a voiceless alveolar fricative / s / . In the Hebrew language, the samekh ס has the same pronunciation as the left-dotted shin שׂ .In Arabic, samekh is replaced by the letter sīn ( س , /s/ ) which is the 15th letter in the common Abjadi order, and the 12th letter in the Hija'i order, it has the same numerical (abjad) value of 60 in the common Abjadi order.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1298257293. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “fifteenth letter in many abjad alphabets”. Today it says “fifteenth letter of the semitic abjads”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2005 and 2025.
Then
fifteenth letter in many abjad alphabets
Now
fifteenth letter of the semitic abjads
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
