Wikipedia's first sentence called it “seventh letter of many abjad alphabets”. Today it says “seventh 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 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2005
Zayin is the seventh letter of many abjad alphabets, including the Phoenician , Hebrew , and Aramaic . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Zeta , Latin Z , and the equivalent in the Cyrillic alphabet . v t e1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17868173.
The opening as it stood in 2010 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Zayin (also spelled Zain or Zayn or simply Zay ) is the seventh letter of many Semitic abjads , including Phoenician 𐤆, Aramaic , Hebrew ז , Syriac ܙ and Arabic alphabet ﺯ [ zāī ].It represents a voiced alveolar fricative , .The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Zeta (Ζ), Etruscan z , Latin Z , and Cyrillic Ze З.The Proto-Canaanite glyph appears to be named after a sword or other weapon.(In Hebrew , "Zayin" means sword, and the verb "Lezayen" means to arm).The Proto-Sinaitic glyph according to Brian Colless may have been called ziqq , based on a hieroglyph depicting a " manacle ".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 367405204.
The opening as it stood in 2015 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Zayin (also spelled zain or zayn or simply zay ) is the seventh letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician Zayin , Hebrew 'Zayin ז , Aramaic Zain , Syriac Zayn ܙ, and Arabic Zayn ز .Means to leave early [ z ] . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek zeta (Ζ), Etruscan z , Latin Z , and Cyrillic Ze З. The Phoenician letter appears to be named after a sword or other weapon.In Biblical Hebrew , zayin ( זין ) means "sword", and the verb lezayen ( לזיין ) means "to arm".In modern Hebrew slang , zayin ( זין ) means " penis " and lezayen ( לזין ) is a vulgar term which generally means to perform sexual intercourse (similar to " fuck "), although the older meaning survives in maavak mezuyan ("armed struggle") ( מאבק מזוין ), kohot mezuyanim ("armed forces") ( כוחות מזוינים ), and beton mezuyan ( בטון מזוין ) ("armed, i.e., reinforced concrete "). The Proto-Sinaitic glyph may have been called ziqq , based on a hieroglyph depicting a " manacle ".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 666422902.
The opening as it stood in 2020 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Zayin (also spelled zain or zayn or simply zay ) is the seventh letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician Zayin , Hebrew 'Zayin , Yiddish Zoyen , Aramaic Zain , Syriac Zayn ܙ, and Arabic Zayn or Zāy ز .It represents the sound [ z ] . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek zeta (Ζ), Etruscan z , Latin Z , and Cyrillic Ze З.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 941353917.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Seventh letter of many Semitic alphabets This article is about Semitic letter.Zayin (also spelled zain or zayn or simply zay ) is the seventh letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician zayn 𐤆, Hebrew zayīn ז, Aramaic zain 𐡆, Syriac zayn ܙ, and Arabic zayn or zāy ز. It represents the sound [ z ] . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek zeta (Ζ), Etruscan z , Latin Z , and Cyrillic Ze З.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1177910073.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Seventh letter of many Semitic alphabets This article is about the Semitic letter. Zayin (also spelled zain or zayn or simply zay ) is the seventh letter of the Semitic abjads , including Phoenician zayn 𐤆, Hebrew zayīn ז , Aramaic zain 𐡆, Syriac zayn ܙ, and Arabic zāy ز . It represents the sound [ z ] . It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪘, South Arabian 𐩸 , and Ge'ez ዘ . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek zeta (Ζ), Etruscan z , Latin Z , and Cyrillic Ze З, as well as Ж .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1298126850. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “seventh letter of many abjad alphabets”. Today it says “seventh 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 since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
seventh letter of many abjad alphabets
Now
seventh 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.
