α

Unicode name	GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
Greek and Coptic	U+03B1
Greek and Coptic → β

See also ∝, and Appendix:Variations of "a"

Translingual

Symbol

α

1. (electrodynamics) The fine structure constant.
2. (classical mechanics) Represents angular acceleration.

   See Wikipedia article on angular acceleration for usage.

3. (chemistry) Used in chemical nomenclature.

   α-lactam has a three-membered ring structure.

4. (astronomy) Used to identify the brightest star in a constellation, for instance α-Centauri.

Derived terms

• α-naphthol

See also

See alpha for names of this symbol in other languages.

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Greek

Etymology

Derived from its Ancient Greek majuscule counterpart Α (A, “Alpha”), in turn from the Phoenician letter 𐤀 (“aleph”).

Letter

α (a) (lower case, upper case Α)

1. Lower-case άλφα (álfa, “alpha”), the first letter of the modern Greek alphabet. Represents the open front unrounded vowel: IPA: /a/, SAMPA: /A/.

Usage notes

Ancient Greek, however, did not distinguish between upper case and lower case. See Α (A) for details.

Derived terms

• α', ,α

See also

• Greek script: Αα    Ββ    Γγ    Δδ    Εε    Ζζ    Ηη    Θθ    Ιι    Κκ    Λλ    Μμ    Νν    Ξξ    Οο    Ππϖ    Ρρ    Σσς    Ττ    Υυ    Φφ    Χχ    Ψψ    Ωω