Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples.

Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised purposes thereafter.

In addition to representing a sound value (a phoneme), runes can be used to represent the concepts after which they are named (ideographs).

Scholars refer to instances of the latter as Begriffsrunen ('concept runes').

The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuþark (derived from their first six letters of the script: F, U, Þ, A, R, and K); the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc (due to sound-changes undergone in Old English by the names of those six letters).