Cyrillic

Q: What type of writing system is Cyrillic?

Cyrillic is an Alphabet used in the European region. It reads Left-to-right and contains 508 characters in Unicode.

Q: How many languages use the Cyrillic script?

61 languages use the Cyrillic script according to Unicode CLDR data. These languages are spoken by approximately 285.5M people combined.

Q: What direction does Cyrillic read?

Cyrillic is written Left-to-right, meaning text flows from left to right.

Кириллица

Cyrl Left-to-right Living Alphabet European

Sample Text

Привет мир

Sample Characters

Ѐ Ё Ђ Ѓ Є Ѕ І Ї Ј Љ Њ Ћ Ќ Ѝ Ў Џ А Б В Г Д Е Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

First 48 characters from Cyrillic (U+0400–U+0489)

About Cyrillic

The Cyrillic alphabet was created in the 9th century CE, traditionally attributed to Saints Cyril and Methodius (though the script now called Cyrillic was likely developed by their disciples). It was designed to write Old Church Slavonic and has since been adapted to write dozens of languages across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Siberia.

In its original form, Cyrillic was based largely on the Greek uncial alphabet with additions for Slavic sounds. Today, each language using Cyrillic may have a slightly different character set — Russian uses 33 letters, while Serbian uses 30 and Mongolian uses 35.

Data sourced from the ISO 15924 registry, Unicode CLDR, and the Unicode Character Database.

Script Family & Lineage

Ancestor Chain

Phoenician › Greek › Cyrillic

Descended Scripts

Old Permic

Languages Using Cyrillic 61

Abkhazian Аԥсшәа Adyghe Avaric Bashkir башҡорт Belarusian беларуская Bosnian bosanski Bulgarian български Buriat буряад Chechen нохчийн Church Slavic Chuvash чӑваш чӗлхи Crimean Tatar Dargwa Erzya эрзянь кель Ingush Kabardian Kalmyk Kara-Kalpak қарақалпақша Karachay-Balkar Kazakh қазақ тілі Komi Komi-Permyak Kumyk Kyrgyz кыргызча Lezghian Macedonian македонски Mari Moksha мокшень кяль Mongolian монгол Nogai Ossetic ирон Russian русский Rusyn Selkup Serbian српски Southern Altai Tajik тоҷикӣ Tatar татар Turkmen türkmen dili Tuvinian Тыва Udmurt Ukrainian українська Uyghur ئۇيغۇرچە Uzbek o‘zbek Western Mari Yakut саха тыла abq aii cjs ckt dng evn gld kca kjh kpy lbe mns tab ude yrk

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of writing system is Cyrillic?

Cyrillic is an Alphabet. Alphabets represent both consonants and vowels as distinct letters.

What direction does Cyrillic read?

Cyrillic is written Left-to-right, the same direction as most European scripts.

How many languages use the Cyrillic script?

61 languages use Cyrillic according to Unicode CLDR data. Together these languages are spoken by approximately 285.5M people worldwide.

When was the Cyrillic script created?

The Cyrillic script originated around 940 CE.

Does Cyrillic have uppercase and lowercase letters?

Cyrillic has uppercase and lowercase letter forms. All vowels are written explicitly.

Compare Cyrillic With Another Script

Direction, characters, languages — side by side.

Key Facts

ISO Code: Cyrl
ISO Number: 220
Script Type: Alphabet
Direction: Left-to-right
Status: Living
Region: European
Characters: 508
Introduced: 940 CE
Languages: 61
Total Speakers: ~285.5M

Unicode Ranges

Cyrillic

U+0400–U+0489
U+048A–U+052F

U+048A–U+052F
Cyrillic Extended-C

U+1C80–U+1C8A
Phonetic Extensions

U+1D2B–U+1D78
Cyrillic Extended-A

U+2DE0–U+2DFF
Cyrillic Extended-B

U+A640–U+A69F
Combining Half Marks

U+FE2E–U+FE2F
Cyrillic Extended-D

U+1E030–U+1E08F