The Greek Alphabet

I first came across the Greek alphabet at the age of twelve, while attempting a crossword. I didn't realize you were allowed to spell individual letters in crosswords, let alone letters from an obscure alphabet!

As it turns out, a knowledge of the Greek alphabet has not only helped me solve crosswords, but has been pretty handy in Scrabble too! But before I start rambling any further, here is the full set of Greek letters with their traditional spellings...

The Greek letters are not only handy in word games and puzzles, but also very useful for vocabulary building - especially if you like to read about science, which uses this alphabet extensively.

Here are some examples of the Greek letters in action...

ALPHA

Word Trivia...: Being the first letter of the alphabet, alpha is often used to denote the first of anything. In astronomy, for example, alpha is used as an adjective denoting the brightest star in a constellation (most famous, perhaps, is Alpha Centauri).
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - none; Hooks - ALPHAS
Crossword Clues...: A; Beta preceder; First of a series; A as in Archimedes; Beginning; Letter opener?; Omega's opposite; ___, beta, gamma...; Numeric lead-in; ___ Phi Omega; First letter; Part of many stars' names; Kind of star; Dominant; Main male; Top dog
Word Trivia...: Like alpha, beta is often used to represent the 2nd of anything. In the world of software, for example, the term beta release is used to refer to a software distribution that is secondary to the official release of a product.
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - ABET, BATE, BEAT; Hooks - BETAS
Crossword Clues...: Test version; Not yet final, in a way; Second in a series; Second of 24; Phi ___ Kappa; Alpha, ___, gamma; Kind of blocker; Certain constellation star; Key letter; ___ carotene; Phase constant, in physics; Kind of star
Word Trivia...: Gamma is reserved by physicists for representing high energy electromagnetic radiation, or 'gamma rays'. In relativity theory they also like to use it to represent the ratio of the speed of an object to the speed of light.
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - MAGMA; Hooks - GAMMAS, GAMMAT
Crossword Clues...: ___ radiation; Letter after beta; Beta follower; Kind of ray; Alpha, beta, ___; Symbol of magnetic field strength; Delta preceder
Word Trivia...: Delta has long been used by physicists to represent a change in the value of something (like speed or location). Nowadays you'll sometimes hear a software engineer talking about 'taking a delta of two files', meaning to find the differences between them.
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - DEALT, LATED; Hooks - DELTAS
Crossword Clues...: Certain sorority member; Triangular formation; Fourth in a series; "D" in radio talk
Word Trivia...: Epsilon is frequently used by mathematicians to represent an extremely small quantity. The great number theorist Paul Erdös used to refer fondly to his grand children as his 'little epsilons'. Geeky, yes, but irresistible all the same, don't you think?
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - PINOLES; Hooks - EPSILONS
Crossword Clues...: Fraternity letter; Electromotive force symbol; Delta follower; Small quantity symbol, in math
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - none; Hooks - ZETAS
Crossword Clues...: Certain sorority woman; Epsilon follower; Sixth in a pledge's recitation; Letter that's not really at the end of the Greek alphabet; Sixth-brightest star in a constellation; Second after delta; Sixth Greek letter; Fraternity letter
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - ATE, EAT, TAE, TEA; Hooks - BETA, FETA, GETA, KETA, META, SETA, WETA, ZETA
Crossword Clues...: Seventh Greek letter; Second letter after epsilon; H; ___ Kappa Nu (honor society); Seventh-brightest star in a constellation; __ Carinae (hypergiant star); Fraternity chapter; H, to Hellenes; Viscosity symbol, in physics; Lesser star designation in a constellation; I ___ Pi (playful fraternity name); Letter from Greece; Greek vowel; Zeta follower; Second letter before iota; Athenian vowel; Seventh letter; Third letter after delta; Second letter after epsilon; Seventh in a series; H, to Herodotus; Sorority letter; It's H-shaped; Letter from the Corinth; Seventh chapter of a fraternity; Hippocrates' H; Letter of a chapter?; Viscosity symbol; Sixth after alpha; Efficiency symbol, in physics; Hellenic vowel; The "H" in Hellenic; Second letter after epsilon; Hesiod's H; Leter from Plato
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - None; Hooks - THETAS
Crossword Clues...: Letter before iota; Letter between eta and iota; Sorority letter; Fraternity letter; Angle denoter, in math; Oval letter with a line through the middle; Angle measurement symbol; Temperature symbol; Kind of radiation, in science fiction; Eighth in a series; Eta-iota link; Eta follower
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - None; Hooks - BIOTA, DIOTA
Crossword Clues...: Letter after theta; Greek "I"; Letter before kappa; Ninth in a series; Theta-kappa go-between; Greek vowel
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - None; Hooks - KAPPAS
Crossword Clues...: Phi Beta___; Letter after Beta in a society's name; Certain sorority woman; Key letter; Honor society letter
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - None; Hooks - LAMBDAS
Crossword Clues...: Sorority letter; Upside-down V; kind of particle in physics; Kappa follower
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - UM; Hooks - AMU, EMU, UMU, MUD, MUG, MUM, MUN, MUS, MUT, MUX
Word Trivia...: Mu is a favorite of statisticians who use it to represent the average, or mean, of a set of values. Physicists use this one for lots of things, including the coefficient of friction, and an electromagnetic quantity called the permittivity of free space.
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - UN; Hooks - GNU, NUB, NUN, NUR, NUS, NUT
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - None; Hooks - XIS
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - MORONIC; Hooks - OMICRONS
Crossword Clues...: A fraternity chapter; Pi preceder
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - None; Hooks - PIA, PIC, PIE, PIG, PIN, PIP, PIR, PIS, PIT, PIU, PIX
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - None; Hooks - RHOS
Crossword Clues...: Pythagorean character; Sigma preceder; P; Pi's follower; Faternity P; The "r" in Aristotle; Density symbol, in physics; Letter between pi and sigma; Letter from the Corinthians; P, to Plato; Sorority letter; 17th chapter; Sweater letter; P, on a fraternity jacket; Greek consonent; Christogram letter; P, in Greece
Word Trivia...: Like mu, sigma is a favorite of statisticians. It is used to represent the standard deviation of a set of numbers. The standard deviation indicates how spread out the values are around their average.
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - AGISM; Hooks - SIGMAS
Crossword Clues...
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - UTA; Hooks - TAUS, TAUT
Crossword Clues...: Arithmetic series symbol; Standard deviation symbol; Calculus symbol; Science society ___ Xi; Symbol of conductivity; Fraternity letter; ___ Alpha Epsilon fraternity; Greek S; Greek letter
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - PULSION; Hooks - UPSILONS
Crossword Clues...: Greek vowel
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - HIP; Hooks - PHIS, PHIZ
Crossword Clues...: ___ phenomenon (optical illusion); ___ Beta Kappa; Symbol of electric flux; Upsilon follower; Honor society letter; Sorority letter; Key letter; Key opener?; Letter before Beta in a society's name; Campus letter; Fluidity symbol, in mechanics; Magnetic flux symbol
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - HIC, ICH; Hooks - CHIA, CHIB, CHIC, CHID, CHIK, CHIN, CHIP, CHIS, CHIT, CHIV, CHIZ
Crossword Clues...: Delta Tau ___ ("Animal House" house); Greek X; ___-square test, in statistics; Phi follower; X; Sorority letter; Campus letter; Psi's preceder; Frat letter; X, to Xenophon
Word Trivia...: Psi has come to characterize the weirdness of the quantum world. Ever since the earliest days of quantum theory, this letter has been used to represent the wave function of a system. No one has been able to work out exactly how this wave function should be interpreted.
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - PIS, SIP; Hooks - PSIS
Crossword Clues...: Wave function symbol; Letter before omega; 23rd in a series; Pitchfork-shaped letter; Letter after chi; ___ particle; 23rd of 24 letters; Greek letter spelled out at the start of a Beatles title?; Last Greek consonant; Fraternity letter; Kind of particle; Next-to-last Greek letter; College sweater letter; Trident-shaped letter; Electric flux symbol; The Beatles' "PSI Love You"; Letter from Greece
Scrabble Facts...: Anagrams - None; Hooks - OMEGAS
Crossword Clues...: "Phi, chi, psi" follower; Zee:English::___:Greek; Last of a series; Alphabet ender; Literally, "great O"; Sorority chapter; The end, to Euripides; Alpha's opposite; Corinthian conclusion; #24 of 24; Horseshoe-shaped symbol; Ohm's symbol; The end, in Revelation; Resistance figure; Physics particle; The end for Socrates

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The Greek Alphabet

ALPHA

BETA

GAMMA

DELTA

EPSILON

ZETA

ETA

THETA

IOTA

KAPPA

LAMBDA

MU

NU

XI

OMICRON

PI

RHO

SIGMA

TAU

UPSILON

PHI

CHI

PSI

OMEGA

Notes...

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