You’re on the phone with someone. You need to spell a word for the other party, perhaps a street name so they can send you a giant novelty check or a free puppy. You have two choices:

1. Waste time and oxygen with the traditional “L as in Larry, A as in Apple, R as in Robot…”
2. Use the ICAO spelling alphabet.

People who talk on the radio, such as pilots and sailors, find that radio communication can be hampered by poor reception, stress, time pressures, and various accents and dialects. Since English is the standard language of aviation, the international aviation community developed the ICAO spelling alphabet to make it easy to understand individual English letters over the radio throughout the world.

Although it sounds a bit odd and technical at first, once you learn the system, it’s actually easy to use and more efficient than the traditional “L as in Larry.” A little practice goes a long way. The word form of each letter, as you probably expect, starts with that letter. A becomes Alpha, B becomes Bravo, and so on.

I use the ICAO spelling alphabet quite often at work. For example, when we must amend a flight release, we use our initials for simplicity. Instead of “AB,” which the pilot could easily mishear as “AD” or “AV”, I am simply Alpha Bravo. Not only does it sound slick, but it also prevents the pilots from mishearing my name as Randy Fox or Sandy Cox.

Here’s a breakdown of the spelling version of the English alphabet:

Sure, some of the words are a bit goofy and/or dated (“foxtrot”? seriously?), but the system works. The U.S. military, police forces, and other groups also use this system or a modified version of it. I am a big fan and wish everyone used it whenever they need to spell something out over the phone. It can also be used to more politely encode some impolite acronyms for those in the know (see military aviator slang).