Spelling or radio alphabets are tables that consist of an alphabet with words assigned to each letter of the given alphabet. In general each word begins with the letter it is representing. For example A = Alpha B = Bravo and so on.

The alphabets are handy tools for communicating in loud or other hard to hear situations where something like K could easily be mistaken for A or J.

Spelling alphabets are frequently called “phonetic alphabets” however phonetic alphabets such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are actually phonetic notation systems that use symbols to represent each of the sounds that occur in spoken human language.