Ze (Cyrillic)

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Cyrillic letter Ze
Cyrillic alphabet
А	Б	В	Г	Ґ	Ѓ	Д
Ђ	Е	Ё	Є	Ж	З	Ѕ
И	І	Ї	Й	Ј	К	Ќ
Л	Љ	М	Н	Њ	О	П
Р	С	Т	Ћ	У	Ў	Ф
Х	Ц	Ч	Џ	Ш	Щ	Ъ
Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Non-Slavic Letters
Ӑ	Ә	Ӕ	Ҕ	Ӗ	Ғ	Ӏ
Ӂ	Җ	Ӝ	Ҙ	Ӟ	Ӡ	Ӣ
Ӥ	Ҡ	Қ	Ҟ	Ҝ	Ң	Ҥ
Ө	Ӧ	Ҧ	Ҫ	Ҷ	Ҹ	Ӵ
Ҽ	Ҿ	Ҩ	Ҳ	Һ	Ҭ	Ҵ
Ӳ	Ӯ	Ү	Ұ	Ӱ
Archaic letters
Ҁ	Ѹ	Ѡ	Ѿ	Ѻ	Ѣ	ІА
Ѥ	Ѧ	Ѫ	Ѩ	Ѭ	Ѯ	Ѱ
Ѳ	Ѵ	Ѷ

Ze (З, з) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the consonant /z/. It's easily confusable with the figure three (3), as in the stages of the N1 rocket. It can also be confused with the Russian letter Э, which represents an "E" sound like in bed.

The pronunciation of з is exactly like z in the Latin alphabet, except when it is devoiced word-finally to [s] or followed by ь or any of the palatalizing vowels, for example зеркало [ˈzʲɛr.kə.lə] ("mirror" in Russian).

Cyrillic ze is derived from the Greek letter Zeta (Ζ, ζ).

[edit] Zhuang

З was used in Zhuang's Latin alphabet from 1957 to 1986 to represent the third (high) tone, because of its similarity to the numeral 3. In 1986, it was replaced by J.