C

the third letter in the English alphabet, and the second of the consonant letters, has two sounds, which are produced by two very different positions of the organs; one hard, like K, which occurs before a, o, u, l, r, s, t, and when final; the other a sibilant, precisely like s, which occurs before e, i, and y. The former is distinguished in this vocabulary by C, the latter by Ç. The digraph ch has three sounds, the first equivalent to tsh, as in church; the second equivalent to sh, as in chaise; the third equivalent to k, as in chorus. See Principles of Pronunciation, §§ 63–69. In the primitive Roman alphabet, the sound of C (hard) was expressed by K, while C (like the Greek Γ, to which it corresponds in place and form) was sounded as G (hard). But, at an early period, the K was abandoned, and C used in its place, while the former sound of C was expressed by G, a slight modification of the same letter.—(Mus.) C after the clef is the mark of common time, in which each measure is a semibreve, corresponding to ⁴⁄₄. C is also the name of a note in the scale; the key note major, and the third minor, of the natural scale.