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,Î 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.