Greek Alphabet Symbols for Math and Science

Greek letters are among the most frequently needed symbols in mathematics, science, and engineering. From α (alpha) in statistics to Ω (omega) in electrical engineering, the 24-letter Greek alphabet provides a rich vocabulary for variables, constants, and operators. This guide covers every Greek letter's Unicode code point, its mathematical meaning, and its LaTeX equivalent.

Complete Greek Alphabet Table

Uppercase Letters

Lowercase Letters

Special and Variant Greek Letters

Unicode includes several variant forms of Greek letters that appear specifically in mathematical contexts:

The difference between \epsilon (ε/ϵ) and \varepsilon in LaTeX, or \phi (φ) and \varphi (ϕ), matters in mathematical typesetting because some communities use one form and some use the other. Unicode encodes both to allow faithful representation of existing mathematical literature.

Greek Letters in Mathematics

Analysis and Calculus

Statistics and Probability

Physics

Computer Science

Greek Letters in Engineering

Keyboard Input Methods

Windows

On Windows, you can insert Greek letters using: 1. Character Map (charmap.exe) — search for "Greek" 2. Alt codes for a few common ones (but most require Character Map) 3. Word/Office — Insert > Symbol > Greek subset 4. LaTeX — If using a LaTeX environment, standard commands work

Mac

1. Greek keyboard layout — System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources > Greek
2. Character Viewer — Control + Command + Space, search for "alpha" etc.
3. Word autocorrect — Many apps convert \alpha typed followed by space

HTML/Web

Always use HTML entities or direct Unicode characters in UTF-8 encoded pages:

<!-- Option 1: Direct Unicode (recommended for UTF-8 pages) -->
<p>The wavelength λ is measured in nanometres.</p>

<!-- Option 2: HTML numeric entity (works anywhere) -->
<p>The wavelength &#955; is measured in nanometres.</p>

<!-- Option 3: Named entity (limited — only &alpha; to &omega; etc. are named) -->
<p>The wavelength &lambda; is measured in nanometres.</p>

LaTeX Quick Reference

% Lowercase Greek
\alpha \beta \gamma \delta \epsilon \varepsilon \zeta \eta
\theta \vartheta \iota \kappa \lambda \mu \nu \xi
\pi \varpi \rho \varrho \sigma \varsigma \tau \upsilon
\phi \varphi \chi \psi \omega

% Uppercase Greek (only those differing from Latin)
\Gamma \Delta \Theta \Lambda \Xi \Pi \Sigma \Upsilon \Phi \Psi \Omega

% Example equation
\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{1}{N}\sum_{i=1}^{N}(x_i - \mu)^2}

Note: Uppercase Greek letters that look identical to their Latin counterparts (A, B, E, Z, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, T, X) are not separately defined in LaTeX — you simply use the Latin letter.

Python/Programming Reference

# Greek letter Unicode code points
GREEK_UPPER = {
    "Alpha":   "\u0391",  # Α
    "Beta":    "\u0392",  # Β
    "Gamma":   "\u0393",  # Γ
    "Delta":   "\u0394",  # Δ
    "Epsilon": "\u0395",  # Ε
    "Zeta":    "\u0396",  # Ζ
    "Eta":     "\u0397",  # Η
    "Theta":   "\u0398",  # Θ
    "Iota":    "\u0399",  # Ι
    "Kappa":   "\u039A",  # Κ
    "Lambda":  "\u039B",  # Λ
    "Mu":      "\u039C",  # Μ
    "Nu":      "\u039D",  # Ν
    "Xi":      "\u039E",  # Ξ
    "Omicron": "\u039F",  # Ο
    "Pi":      "\u03A0",  # Π
    "Rho":     "\u03A1",  # Ρ
    "Sigma":   "\u03A3",  # Σ
    "Tau":     "\u03A4",  # Τ
    "Upsilon": "\u03A5",  # Υ
    "Phi":     "\u03A6",  # Φ
    "Chi":     "\u03A7",  # Χ
    "Psi":     "\u03A8",  # Ψ
    "Omega":   "\u03A9",  # Ω
}

GREEK_LOWER = {
    "alpha":   "\u03B1",  # α
    "beta":    "\u03B2",  # β
    "gamma":   "\u03B3",  # γ
    "delta":   "\u03B4",  # δ
    "epsilon": "\u03B5",  # ε
    "zeta":    "\u03B6",  # ζ
    "eta":     "\u03B7",  # η
    "theta":   "\u03B8",  # θ
    "iota":    "\u03B9",  # ι
    "kappa":   "\u03BA",  # κ
    "lambda":  "\u03BB",  # λ
    "mu":      "\u03BC",  # μ
    "nu":      "\u03BD",  # ν
    "xi":      "\u03BE",  # ξ
    "omicron": "\u03BF",  # ο
    "pi":      "\u03C0",  # π
    "rho":     "\u03C1",  # ρ
    "sigma":   "\u03C3",  # σ
    "tau":     "\u03C4",  # τ
    "upsilon": "\u03C5",  # υ
    "phi":     "\u03C6",  # φ
    "chi":     "\u03C7",  # χ
    "psi":     "\u03C8",  # ψ
    "omega":   "\u03C9",  # ω
}

Historical Note: The Greek Alphabet in Unicode

Unicode encodes the Greek alphabet in the Greek and Coptic block (U+0370–U+03FF) and the Greek Extended block (U+1F00–U+1FFF) for polytonic diacritical forms used in ancient and scholarly Greek. The basic modern Greek letters used in mathematics all live in the U+0391–U+03C9 range.

The Unicode Standard also encodes many individual Greek-letter-like mathematical symbols in the Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols block (U+1D400–U+1D7FF), which includes bold, italic, bold-italic, and sans-serif variants of each Greek letter for use in mathematical notation where style carries semantic meaning.