I'm at the beginning of the end and the start of eternity, at the end of time and space, in every race. What am I?

This clever wordplay zeroes in on a single character that fulfills each condition. Consider the word "end," where it marks the very beginning. Then, think of "eternity," where it also starts its long journey. When you reach the conclusion of "time" and "space," you'll find it there as well. Finally, it makes an appearance in every "race," revealing its pervasive nature. The solution to this linguistic puzzle is the letter E.

Beyond its role in riddles, this unassuming character holds a remarkable distinction in the English language. It is, in fact, the most frequently used letter, appearing in approximately 11 to 12.7 percent of all common English words and texts. Its omnipresence is so profound that authors have even attempted the challenging feat of writing entire novels without it, such as Ernest Vincent Wright's 1939 novel, Gadsby. This highlights just how integral the letter E is to our everyday communication.

Tracing its lineage back thousands of years, the letter E originated from a Semitic consonant, which represented a sound similar to the English 'h'. It evolved through the Phoenician alphabet, where it was called 'he', and then into the Greek 'epsilon', before arriving in its current form in the Latin alphabet. This versatile character also plays a crucial role in shaping the pronunciation of countless words, sometimes even silently influencing other vowel sounds, demonstrating its subtle yet significant impact on the structure of our language.