The Greek Alphabet

 

Mathematics requires a large number of symbols to stand for numbers and other objects. Greek letters were introduced to provide additional symbols to supplement Roman letters.

CAP / lower                 Name & Description

A a       ALPHA (AL-fuh) First letter of the Greek alphabet.

B b        BETA (BAY-tuh)

G g         GAMMA (GAM-uh)

D d        DELTA (DEL-tuh)

E e,Π   EPSILON (EP-sil-on) The second form of the lower case epsilon is used as the “set membership” symbol.

Z z        ZETA (ZAY-tuh)

H h       ETA (AY-tuh)

Q q        THETA (THAY-tuh)

I i          IOTA (eye-OH-tuh)

K k       KAPPA (KAP-uh)

L l        LAMBDA (LAM-duh)

M m       MU (MYOO)

N n        NU (NOO)

X x        XI (KS-EYE)

O o       OMICRON (OM-i-KRON) Rarely used because it looks like an ‘o.’

P p       PI (PIE) The lower-case Pi is universally used to represent that number which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The upper-case Pi is used as the “product” symbol.

R r        RHO (ROW)

S s        SIGMA (SIG-muh) The capital Sigma is used as the “summation” symbol.

T t         TAU (TAU)

U u        UPSILON (OOP-si-LON)

F j,f   PHI (FEE) The two versions of lower-case Phi are used interchangeably.

C c       CHI (K-EYE)

Y y       PSI (SIGH)

W w       OMEGA (oh-MAY-guh) Last letter of the Greek alphabet.