Nun is the fourteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Nūn , Hebrew Nun , Aramaic Nun , Syriac Nūn ܢܢ, and Arabic Nūn (in abjadi order). Its numerical value is 50. It is the third letter in Thaana (), pronounced as "noonu". In all languages, it represents the alveolar nasal /n/. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek nu (Ν), Etruscan , Latin N, and Cyrillic Н. Origins Nun is believed to be derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph of a snake (the Hebrew word for snake, nachash begins with a Nun and snake in Aramaic is nun) or eel. Some have hypothesized a hieroglyph of fish in water as its origin (in Arabic, means large fish or whale). The Phoenician letter was named "fish", but the glyph has been suggested to descend from a hypothetical Proto-Canaanite "snake", based on the name in Ethiopic, ultimately from a hieroglyph representing a snake, I10 (see Middle Bronze Age alphabets). Hebrew Nun Hebrew spelling: The letter in its final position appears with or without a top hook on different sans-serif fonts, for example Arial, DejaVu Sans, Arimo, Open Sans: ן Tahoma, Noto Sans Hebrew, Alef, Heebo: ן Pronunciation Nun represents an alveolar nasal, (IPA: ), like the English letter N. Variations Nun, like Kaph, Mem, Pe, and Tzadi, has a final form, used at the end of words. Its shape changes from נ to ן. There are also nine instances of an inverted nun (׆) in the Tanakh. Significance In gematria, Nun represents the number 50. Its final form represents 700 but this is rarely used, Tav and Shin (400+300) being used instead. As in Arabic, nun as an abbreviation can stand for neqevah, feminine. In medieval Rabbinic writings, Nun Sophit (Final Nun) stood for "Son of" (Hebrew ben). Nun is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a tag: plural tagin ) when written in a Sefer Torah. See Tag (Hebrew writing), Shin, Ayin, Teth, Gimmel, Zayin, and Tzadi. In the game of dreidel, a rolled Nun passes play to the next player with no other action. Arabic nūn The letter is named , and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word: Some examples on its uses in Modern Standard Arabic: Nūn is used as a suffix indicating present-tense plural feminine nouns; for example hiya taktub ("she writes") becomes hunna