A writing system in which letters represent phonemes. (Contrast e.g. logography, a writing system in which each character represents a word, and syllabary, in which each character represents a syllable.)
“Although racism, sexism, ageism, etc, are all regarded as unacceptable evils, no thought has been given to those suffering from alphabetism.”
“This latent syllabism, which underlies the alphabetism of the hieroglyphic writing, indicates with sufficient clearness the origin of the Egyptian alphabet.”
(rare) One who deals with the alphabet in some way, for example by attempting to make a series of utterances beginning with each letter of the alphabet in order.
