The phonetic alphabet is a list of 26 words, for each letter of the alphabet. Each word represents the letter that it begins with. The phonetic alphabet is often used to clear up any misunderstanding over the pronunciation of letters, e.g. a “M” for a “N” or a “B” for a “P”.
In certain countries, there is no standard phonetic alphabet. Instead, contact centres often use names and cities to identify letters, e.g. A - Adam, B - Boy, C - China, etc.
Notes:
* First introduced by NATO in 1955.
* The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Phonetic Alphabet is currently officially denoted as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (IRSA) or the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) phonetic alphabet or ITU (International Telecommunication Union) phonetic alphabet.
* The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is also known as telephone alphabet, radio alphabet, word-spelling alphabet, or voice procedure alphabet.