Alpha

The standard spoken code word for the letter A in the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet.

It is pronounced “AL-fah” and is used to spell names, call signs and other information clearly over marine radio when individual letters could be confused. The same standard word is used in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

Alpha is also the name associated with International Code of Signals flag A, whose message is a separate visual-signal meaning. That flag meaning should be covered by its own linked entry so a radio tooltip remains unambiguous.