alpha
7 definitions found
alpha - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Alpha \Al"pha\, n. [L. alpha, Gr. 'a`lfa, from Heb. [=a]leph,
name of the first letter in the alphabet, also meaning ox.]
The first letter in the Greek alphabet, answering to A, and
hence used to denote the beginning.
[1913 Webster]
In am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last. --Rev. xxii.
13.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Formerly used also denote the chief; as, Plato was the
alpha of the wits.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In cataloguing stars, the brightest star of a
constellation in designated by Alpha ([alpha]); as,
[alpha] Lyr[ae].
[1913 Webster]
A \A\ (named [=a] in the English, and most commonly [aum] in
other languages).
The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets.
The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe,
as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic,
black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A,
which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form;
and this was made from the first letter (?) of the
Ph[oe]nician alphabet, the equivalent of the Hebrew Aleph,
and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was a
consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not
an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to
represent their vowel Alpha with the [aum] sound, the
Ph[oe]nician alphabet having no vowel symbols.
[1913 Webster] This letter, in English, is used for several
different vowel sounds. See Guide to pronunciation,
[sect][sect] 43-74. The regular long a, as in fate, etc., is
a comparatively modern sound, and has taken the place of
what, till about the early part of the 17th century, was a
sound of the quality of [aum] (as in far).
[1913 Webster]
2. (Mus.) The name of the sixth tone in the model major scale
(that in C), or the first tone of the minor scale, which
is named after it the scale in A minor. The second string
of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble staff. -- A
sharp (A[sharp]) is the name of a musical tone
intermediate between A and B. -- A flat (A[flat]) is the
name of a tone intermediate between A and G.
[1913 Webster]
A per se (L. per se by itself), one pre["e]minent; a
nonesuch. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
O fair Creseide, the flower and A per se
Of Troy and Greece. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
alpha - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :
alpha
adj 1: first in order of importance; "the alpha male in the
group of chimpanzees"; "the alpha star in a constellation
is the brightest or main star"
2: early testing stage of a software or hardware product; "alpha
version"
n 1: the 1st letter of the Greek alphabet
2: the beginning of a series or sequence; "the Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last, the beginning and the end"--
Revelations
alpha - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :
ALPHA
Input
<language> (Or "Input") An extension of ALGOL 60 for the
M-20 computer developed by A.P. Ershov at Novosibirsk in
1961. ALPHA includes matrix operations, slices, and
complex arithmetic.
["The Alpha Automatic Programming System", A.P. Ershov ed.,
A-P 1971].
(1995-05-10)
Alpha
1. <tool> A compiler generator written by Andreas Koschinsky
<koschins@cs.tu-berlin.de> and described in his thesis at the
Technische Universitaet Berlin. Alpha takes an attribute grammar
and uses Bison and Flex to generate a parser, a
scanner and an ASE evaluator (Jazayeri and Walter).
The documentation is in german.
(1993-02-16)
2. <processor> DEC Alpha.
(1995-05-10)
alpha - U.S. Gazetteer (1990) :
Alpha, IL (village, FIPS 971)
Location: 41.19217 N, 90.38082 W
Population (1990): 753 (324 housing units)
Area: 0.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 61413
Alpha, KY
Zip code(s): 42603
Alpha, MI (village, FIPS 1800)
Location: 46.04394 N, 88.37826 W
Population (1990): 219 (130 housing units)
Area: 2.4 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water)
Alpha, MN (city, FIPS 1162)
Location: 43.63919 N, 94.87138 W
Population (1990): 105 (58 housing units)
Area: 0.5 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 56111
Alpha, NJ (borough, FIPS 1030)
Location: 40.65975 N, 75.15746 W
Population (1990): 2530 (1003 housing units)
Area: 4.4 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 08865
alpha - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :
58 Moby Thesaurus words for "alpha":
A, beginning, blast-off, breaking-in, commencement, creation,
cutting edge, dawn, dawning, edge, establishment, first,
first blush, first glance, first impression, first inning,
first lap, first move, first round, first sight, first stage,
first step, flying start, foundation, fresh start, gambit, genesis,
initial, initiative, institution, jump-off, kick-off,
le premier pas, leading edge, new departure, oncoming, onset,
opening, opening move, origin, origination, outbreak, outset,
outstart, prime, primitiveness, primitivity, running start,
send-off, setout, setting in motion, setting-up, square one, start,
start-off, starting point, take-off, warming-up
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