tau

See also Tau, tàu, tău, ta'u, and taʻu

English

Ancient Greek Alphabet

← sigma		→ upsilon
Τ τ Ancient Greek: ταῦ
Wikipedia article on tau

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ταῦ (tau).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /taʊ/, /tɔː/

Noun

tau (plural taus)

1. The name of the letter T/τ in the Greek, Hebrew and ancient Semitic alphabets, being the nineteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, the twentieth letter of Old and Ancient Greek.
2. A Τ-shaped sign or structure; a St. Anthony's cross, sometimes considered as a sacred symbol.
   • 1658: Nor shall we take in the mysticall Tau, or the Crosse of our blessed Saviour, which having in some descriptions an Empedon or crossing foot-stay, made not one single transversion. — Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007, p. 168)
3. (physics, dated) A tau meson, now usually known as a kaon.
4. (physics) An unstable heavy lepton, which decays into a muon or electron; a tauon.
5. (biology) A type of protein used to stabilise microtubules.
   • 1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial 2004, p. 263:

     Quite what that job is remains obscure, but one theory is that it is to stabilise another protein called tau, which is supposed in turn to keep in shape the tubular ‘skeleton’ of a neuron.

Coordinate terms

• (Greek letter): Previous: sigma. Next: upsilon

Translations

Greek letter

• Arabic: تاو (ar) (tau) m
• Catalan: tau (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 套 (cmn) (tào)

• Czech: tau (cs) n
• Dutch: tau (nl) m and f
• Finnish: tau (fi)
• French: tau (fr) m
• German: Tau (de) n

• Greek: ταυ (el) (tau) n
• Icelandic: tá (is) n
• Interlingua: tau
• Japanese: タウ (ja) (tau)
• Korean: 타우 (ko) (tau)
• Malay: tau (ms)
• Portuguese: tau (pt) m
• Russian: тау (ru) (táu) n (indeclinable)
• Swedish: tau (sv)

St. Anthony's cross

• French: croix en tau (fr) f, croix de Saint-Antoine (fr) f

(dated) kaon

tauon — see tauon

protein used to stabilise microtubules

• French: protéine tau (fr) f, tau (fr) f

Anagrams

• AUT

---

Catalan

Noun

tau f (plural taus)

1. Tau; the Greek letter Τ (lowercase τ).
2. Tav; the Hebrew letter ת.
3. (religion) A tau cross.

---

Czech

Noun

tau n

1. tau

---

Finnish

Noun

tau

1. tau

Declension

Declension of tau (type rosé) singular plural nominative tau taut genitive taun tauiden partitive tauta tauita accusative tau taun taut inessive taussa tauissa elative tausta tauista illative tauhun tauihin adessive taulla tauilla ablative taulta tauilta allative taulle tauille essive tauna tauina translative tauksi tauiksi instructive – tauin abessive tautta tauitta comitative – tauineen

---

French

Pronunciation

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

Noun

tau m (invariable)

1. tau (Greek letter)
2. (physics) tau, tauon

Anagrams

• tua

---

Icelandic

Etymology

From Danish tøj.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tøyː/
• Rhymes: -øyː

Noun

tau n

1. fabric
2. clothing

Declension

declension of tau

n-s	singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	tau	tauið
accusative	tau	tauið
dative	taui	tauinu
genitive	taus	tausins

---

Italian

Noun

Wikipedia ^it

tau m and f (invariable)

1. tau (Greek letter)

Anagrams

• tua

---

Lithuanian

Pronoun

tau

1. (second-person singular) dative form of tu.

---

Lojban

Cmavo

tau

1. indicates that the next letter's case is flipped when spelling a word

   .abu ry. tau xy. .ibu vy.

   a-r-X-i-v

Related terms

• ga'e
• to'a

Rafsi

tau

1. rafsi of tanru.

---

Maori

Etymology 1

From Proto-Polynesian *taqu, from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taqun.

Noun

tau

1. year (time it takes for the Earth to complete one revolution of the Sun)
2. year (time it takes for any planetary body to make one revolution around another body)
3. year (a period between set dates that mark a year)
4. year (scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity)
5. year (Julian year)
6. year (level or grade at school or college)

Etymology 2

From Proto-Polynesian *tau (compare Hawaiian kau, Niuean tau, Tongan tau), from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taʀuq (compare Indonesian taruh, Malagasy tao, Malay taruh).

Verb

tau

1. to settle

---

Niuean

Etymology 1

From Proto-Polynesian *taqu, from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taqun.

Noun

tau

1. year (time it takes for the Earth to complete one revolution of the Sun)
2. year (time it takes for any planetary body to make one revolution around another body)
3. year (a period between set dates that mark a year)
4. year (scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity)
5. year (Julian year)
6. year (level or grade at school or college)

Etymology 2

From Proto-Polynesian *tau (compare Hawaiian kau, Maori tau, Tongan tau), from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taʀuq (compare Indonesian taruh, Malagasy tao, Malay taruh).

Verb

tau

1. fight

---

Norwegian

Alternative forms

• tog (Nynorsk)

Noun

tau

1. rope
2. (physics) tau lepton
3. tau (Greek letter)

Synonyms

• (1) rep

Inflection

    Inflection of tau

	indefinite singular	definite singular	indefinite plural	definite plural
Bokmål n	tau	tauet	tau	taua/tauene
Nynorsk n	tau	tauet	tau	taua [taui]

---

Sotho

Noun

tau

1. lion

---

Spanish

Noun

tau f (plural taus)

1. tau; the Greek letter Τ, τ
2. tauon (elementary particle)

Synonyms

• (tauon): tauón

See also

• (Greek script letter names) letra; alfa, beta, gamma, delta, épsilon, dseda, eta, zeta, iota, kappa, lambda, mi, ni, xi, ómicron, pi, ro, sigma, tau, ípsilon, fi, ji, psi, omega ^{(Category: es:Greek letter names)}
• (leptons) leptón; electrón, muón, tau/tauón, neutrino electrónico, neutrino muónico, neutrino tauónico

---

Tahitian

Adjective

tau

1. some

Synonyms

• nau

References

• Yves Lemaître, Lexique du tahitien contemporain (Current Tahitian lexicon), 1995.
• “tau” in Dictionnaire en ligne Tahitien/Français (Online Tahitian–French Dictionary), by the Tahitian Academy.

---

Tongan

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *tau (compare Hawaiian kau, Maori tau, Niuean tau), from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taʀuq (compare Indonesian taruh, Malagasy tao, Malay taruh).

Verb

tau

1. fight

---

Tswana

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ta.u/

Noun

tau CLASS 9/10 (plural ditau)

1. lion