H

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, this symbol is used to represent two sounds. Its lowercase form, {{IPA|}}, represents the voiceless glottal fricative, and its small capital form, {{IPA|}}, represents the voiceless epiglottal fricative.

Meanings for H

• In biochemistry, H is the symbol for histidine.
• In chemistry, H is the symbol for hydrogen.
• In computing:
• ^H is often used jokingly to indicate the intended deletion of the previous letter. This is because some operating systems display ^H when pressing the backspace key if the keyboard is not configured properly.
• The file extension .h is used for C header files.
• In English slang, H is a term for heroin, a recreational drug that is highly addictive.
• In Japanese, H was originally an abbreviation for "hentai" (pervert). It has come to mean sexual, as in H games (pornographic computer games) or H suru (meaning "to have sex"). Through the popularity of anime (Japanese animation), the old incorrect meaning has become known to fans in the west. See also Ecchi.
• In international licence plate codes, H stands for Hungary.
• In mathematics, blackboard bold $mathbb\{H\}$ represents the quaternions (after William Rowan Hamilton, $mathbb\{Q\}$ representing the rationals).
• In the SI system:
• H is the symbol for the SI derived unit for electric inductance, the henry.
• h, hecto, is the SI prefix meaning hundred, 10².
• In music, H is a note in the German system, corresponding to B natural.
• In physics, h is Planck's constant.
• In thermodynamics, h is enthalpy.
• H is the stage name of Ian Watkins, formerly of the pop group Steps.
• H is the nickname of Adrian Smith, guitarist for the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.
• As the first letter of a postal code:
• In Canada, H stands for the Metropolitan Montréal area.
• In science fiction fandom and hacker jargon, the infix of an h is a method of "marking" common words, i.e., calling attention to the fact that they are being used in a nonstandard, ironic, or humorous way. It is likely to have originated in the fannish catch phrase ?Bheer is the One True Ghod!? from the mid-20th Century. The h infix marking of "Ghod" and other words spread into the 1960s counterculture via underground comics, and into early hackerdom either from the counterculture or from SF fandom (the three communities overlapped heavily at the time). More recently, the h infix has become an expected feature of benchmark names (Dhrystone, Rhealstone, etc.); this is probably patterning on the original Whetstone (the name of a laboratory) but influenced by the fannish/counterculture h infix.