For instance, the entry for I begins as follows: "I is the first letter of the alphabet, the first word of the language, the first thought of the mind, the first object of affection." Despite this, the letter I, even though it is the "first letter of the alphabet", is still placed where one would expect—as the ninth letter. Bierce gives a similar treatment to the letter X:
"X in our alphabet being a needless letter has an added invincibility to the attacks of the spelling reformers, and like them, will doubtless last as long as the language. ... Words beginning with X are Grecian and will not be defined in this standard English dictionary."
Here, X's normal place in the alphabet is not only questioned, as it is with I's, but rejected outright. Yet its very inclusion in the dictionary—and, once again, in its "proper" place as the twenty-fourth letter—conflicts with that stance.
Ironically, Bierce did write an entry on A, what he calls "the first letter in every properly constructed alphabet." However, it was left out of the original publication of The Devil's Dictionary, as Ernest J. Hopkins notes in his edition of The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, and the entry is not included in many recent editions.