upsilon
Americannoun
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the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet (Υ, υ).
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the vowel sound represented by this letter.
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Also called upsilon particle. Physics. any of a family of heavy, short-lived, neutral mesons that are composed of a bottom quark and its antiquark. Υ, υ
noun
Etymology
Origin of upsilon
First recorded in 1615–25; from Late Greek ŷ psīlón, literally, “simple u ” (to distinguish it from the digraph oi, pronounced the same in Late Greek )
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.
And Last: The Empress comes down with a breakthrough case of the upsilon variant and loses her senses of taste and humor.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2021
Alpha, beta, upsilon, phi / Tuition here is too damn high!
From Washington Times ● Dec. 26, 2019
They named the signal upsilon, after the shape of the decay-particle trajectories, which resembled the Greek letter.
From Nature ● Nov. 4, 2018
A bone of the tongue resembling the Greek letter upsilon in shape.
From A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) by Cutter, Calvin
For example; the names of letters, whether vowels or consonants, do not correspond to their sounds, with the exception of epsilon, upsilon, omicron, omega.
From Cratylus by Jowett, Benjamin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.