Greek Letter Symbols

About Greek Letter Symbols

Last reviewed on May 7, 2026

The Greek alphabet has been part of computing standards since the earliest character-set work. In Unicode it lives in the Greek and Coptic block (U+0370–U+03FF), with archaic and extended letters in Greek Extended (U+1F00–U+1FFF). For everyday writing, math, and science, the basic block is what you need.

How Greek letters are used outside Greek

Most readers of English-language sites encounter Greek letters in three places: as variable names in math and physics, as names of phenomena (alpha particle, beta version, gamma ray, sigma factor), and as decorative type in branding. The same character serves all three; context tells the reader how to interpret it.

Conventional meanings in technical writing

Greek letters carry strong conventional associations in technical fields. A sample of the common ones:

• Alpha (α, Α) — significance level in statistics, angular acceleration, alpha particles, the first item in a series.
• Beta (β, Β) — regression coefficient, beta release software, beta particles, second-position items.
• Gamma (γ, Γ) — gamma function, gamma ray, the gamma encoding in display calibration.
• Delta (δ, Δ) — change or difference, the Dirac delta function, delta in calculus.
• Theta (θ, Θ) — angles by long convention.
• Lambda (λ, Λ) — wavelengths, eigenvalues, anonymous functions in programming.
• Mu (μ, Μ) — the mean of a distribution, the SI prefix for micro-, the coefficient of friction.
• Pi (π, Π) — the circle constant, product notation in math.
• Sigma (σ, Σ) — standard deviation in lowercase, summation in uppercase.
• Phi (φ, Φ) — the golden ratio, phase in physics.
• Omega (ω, Ω) — angular frequency, the last item in a series, the ohm unit (Ω) in electronics.

Final sigma

Greek has two lowercase sigmas: the common sigma (σ) used in the middle of words and the final sigma (ς) used at the end of words. In math, you almost always want the regular σ. Using the final form for a math variable is technically valid but unusual and may confuse a reader.

Capital letters that are visually identical to Latin

Several Greek capitals look exactly like Latin letters — Alpha looks like A, Beta like B, Epsilon like E, Zeta like Z, Eta like H, Iota like I, Kappa like K, Mu like M, Nu like N, Omicron like O, Rho like P, Tau like T, Upsilon like Y, Chi like X. They are different code points and may render with subtle differences. For accessibility and for searches that work across both alphabets, prefer the Latin letter when you mean the Latin letter, and the Greek capital only when you specifically need the Greek.

Typing Greek without copying

Most operating systems include a Greek keyboard layout you can switch to. On the web, the Unicode converter turns U+ codes back into characters if you have the code point but not the glyph. For decorative use in headlines, see the aesthetic symbols.

Inserting Greek letters in documents

For Word, Google Docs, Excel, and Sheets workflows — including LaTeX-style Math AutoCorrect that turns \alpha into α — see insert symbols in Word and Docs.