E.

The second vowel and the fifth letter of the English alphabet. It occurs more frequently in the words of the language than any other letter of the alphabet. It has two principal sounds, the long, as in me, and the short, as in mĕt; also, several occasional sounds, the three principal of which are heard in the words heir, prey, err, respectively. At the end of words it is usually silent, but serves to indicate that the preceding vowel has its long sound, where otherwise it would be short, as in māne, cāne, mēte, which without the final e would be pronounced măn, căn, mĕt. After c and g, the final e indicates that these letters are to be pronounced as s and j, respectively, as in lace, rage, which, without e, would be pronounced lāc, rāg. See Principles of Pronunciation, §§ 10–14, 46, and 47.—(Mus.) E is the third tone of the model diatonic scale. E♭ (E flat) is a tone intermediate between D and E.

E. A Latin prefix; the same as Ex. See Ex.