Whether in movies or on the phone, you’ve probably heard someone say a combination of words that sound completely senseless together, but which actually use the first letters to spell something out.

A male is a ‘mike’. We use letters selected from a standard phonetic, or spelling, alphabet so nobody fumbles for words. Spelling alphabets came about because early users of radios ...

Memorise and practise using the useful alfa bravo charlie-style phonetic alphabet, used worldwide to make it easier to spell words over the radio. That might clear up one confusion, but the best way ...

The researchers dubbed their catalog of sound combinations a “phonetic alphabet” for sperm whales, comparing variations in the whales’ click sequences to the production of different phonetic ...