Tengwar is the fictional script J.R.R. Tolkien created for many languages of Middle-earth.
Tengwar is an abugida-style writing system whose letters, or tengwar, represent consonants and whose vowel signs are called tehtar. Tolkien designed it primarily for the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin, although the script is also used to write other languages in his fictional world.
The script appears in Tolkien’s illustrations and in inscriptions associated with Middle-earth. One famous example is the inscription on the One Ring, which uses Tengwar characters to write the Black Speech of Mordor.
Tengwar is distinct from Cirth, another writing system in Tolkien’s legendarium. Cirth consists mainly of angular runes and is especially associated with Dwarves, though other peoples also use it. Fans sometimes use “Tengwar” broadly for Tolkien lettering, but the term specifically identifies the script’s formal system of letters and vowel marks.