runic alphabet

noun

1

: an alphabet originally of 24 and later of some 16 angular characters probably derived from both Latin and Greek and used for inscriptions and magic signs by the Germanic peoples from about the 3d to the 13th centuries and especially by the Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons

called also futhark

compare thorn sense 3, wen, yogh

2

: the runiform alphabet of the Orkhon inscriptions

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