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Greek alphabet

American  

noun

  1. the alphabetic script derived from a Semitic alphabet by way of the Phoenicians, used from about the 8th century b.c. for the writing of Greek, and forming the basis of many other scripts, including Latin and Cyrillic. The letters of the Greek alphabet are: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega.


Etymology

Origin of Greek alphabet

First recorded in 1730–40

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Its name comes from the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, which means that pi also has its own symbol – 𝜋.

From NewsForKids.net Mar. 14, 2024

Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, was chosen for the project’s name to imply “the last word” in stylish design.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 22, 2023

When variants of the virus mutated and evolved into new strains with significant advantages over old lineages, the WHO began giving these "variants of concern" names from the Greek alphabet.

From Salon Apr. 13, 2023

During the Covid pandemic, it recommended that variants were referred to using letters of the Greek alphabet because they were "non-stigmatising" and easy to pronounce.

From BBC Nov. 28, 2022

Each of its twin blades was shaped like an omega: Q—the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

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