What was the 27th letter of the English alphabet?
Zeta
Asterisk
Gamma
Ampersand
Can you name the 27th letter of the alphabet? Well, of course not; there are only 26 letters in the alphabet. However, there was once a time when the alphabet boasted an additional character, namely the ampersand, commonly denoted as ‘&,’ and it was considered a part of the alphabet until the middle of the nineteenth century. Today, it primarily appears in company names such as H&R Block or Ben & Jerry’s. When the ampersand was part of the alphabet, it followed ‘Z’. When reciting the alphabet, children would say, “X, Y, Z, and per se and,” which meant that “and” was the way to pronounce “&.” This phrase was eventually shortened to “ampersand.”
The correct answer is Ampersand.