In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “twenty-first letter in many abjad alphabets”. Today it says “twenty-first and penultimate 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 “twenty-first letter in many abjad alphabets”. Today it says “twenty-first and penultimate letter of the semitic abjads”.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
Shin or Sin is the twenty-first letter in many abjad alphabets, including Phoenician , Hebrew , and Aramaic .1The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Sigma (Σ), Latin S and the equivalent in the Cyrillic alphabet .2It is typically transcribed sh . It may have inspired the form of the letter Sha in the Glagolitic alphabet . In the Sefer Yetzirah the letter Shin is King over Fire, forms Heaven in the universe, Hot in the year, and the Head in the soul. It is given the numerical value of 300. v t e3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17870658.
The opening as it stood in 2010 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
History Inscriptions Phoenician Paleo-Hebrew Hebrew Aramaic Syriac Shin (also spelled Šin ( šīn ) or Sheen ) is the twenty-first letter in many Semitic abjads , including Phoenician 𐤔 , Aramaic / Hebrew ש , and Arabic ﺵ (in abjadi order , 13th in modern order).Its sound value is a voiceless sibilant , or /s/ .The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Sigma ( Σ ), Latin S , and the letter Sha in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts ( Ⱎ , Ш ).The South Arabian and Ethiopian letter Śawt is also cognate.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 367392452.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Shin (also spelled Šin ( šīn ) or Sheen ) literally means "teeth", "press", and "sharp"; It is the twenty-first letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician Shin , Hebrew Shin ש , Aramaic Shin , Syriac Shin ܫ, and Arabic Shin ش (in abjadi order , 13th in modern order). Its sound value is a voiceless sibilant , [ ʃ ] or [ s ] . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Sigma ( Σ ) (which in turn gave Latin S and Cyrillic С ), and the letter Sha in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts ( , Ш ). The South Arabian and Ethiopian letter Śawt is also cognate.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 665688737.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Shin (also spelled Šin ( šīn ) or Sheen ) is the twenty-first letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician Shin , Hebrew Shin ש , Aramaic Shin , Syriac Shin ܫ, and Arabic Shin ش (in abjadi order , 13th in modern order). Its sound value is a voiceless sibilant , [ ʃ ] or [ s ] . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Sigma ( Σ ) (which in turn gave Latin S and Cyrillic С ), and the letter Sha in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts ( , Ш ). The South Arabian and Ethiopian letter Śawt is also cognate.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 957877830.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Twenty-first letter in many Semitic alphabets Shin (also spelled Šin ( šīn ) or Sheen ) is the twenty-first letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician šīn 𐤔, Hebrew šīn ש, Aramaic šīn 𐡔, Syriac šīn ܫ, and Arabic sīn س . Its sound value is a voiceless sibilant , [ ʃ ] or [ s ] . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Sigma ( Σ ) (which in turn gave Latin S and Cyrillic С ), and the letter Sha in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts ( , Ш ). The South Arabian and Ethiopian letter Śawt is also cognate. There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178747907.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Twenty-first letter in many Semitic alphabets Shin (also spelled Šin ( šīn ) or Sheen ) is the twenty-first and penultimate letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician šīn 𐤔, Hebrew šīn ש , Aramaic šīn 𐡔, Syriac šīn ܫ, and Arabic sīn س . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Sigma ( Σ ) (which in turn gave rise to the Latin S , the German ẞ and the Cyrillic С ), and the letter Sha in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts ( , Ш ). The South Arabian and Ethiopian letter Śawt is also cognate. The letter šīn is the only letter of the Arabic alphabet with three dots with a letter corresponding to a letter in the Northwest Semitic abjad or the Phoenician alphabet. There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1291027652. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “twenty-first letter in many abjad alphabets”. Today it says “twenty-first and penultimate 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
twenty-first letter in many abjad alphabets
Now
twenty-first and penultimate 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.
