T or t, the twentieth letter and sixteenth consonant of the English alphabet; the sound of which is formed by a strong expulsion of the breath through the mouth, upon a sudden drawing back of the tongue from the fore-part of the palate, with the lips at the same time open. Its use, like that of all mute articulations, is to modify the utterance of the vocal sounds which precede or succeed it. The proper sound of t is expressed in most words beginning or ending with that letter; as in take, tell, hot, put. Ti before a vowel has the sound of si, or rather of shi, as in creation, except when s precedes, as in question; and derivatives from words ending in ty, as mighty, mightier. Th has two sounds; the one soft, as thou, father; the other hard, as thing, think. The sound is soft in these words, then, thence, and there, with their derivatives and compounds; and in the words that, this, thus, thy, they, though; and in all words in which th comes between two vowels, as whether, rather; and between r and a vowel, as burthen. In English, Latin, Greek, and various other languages, the letter t is interchangeable with c, d, p, s, and l, and in French the final t is frequently dropped. For the various forms of this letter see ALPHABET; and for its employment to express different words and phrases see ABBREVIATIONS.