alpha(Greek: A, a; beginning, first of anything; first letter of the Greek alphabet; used in physics and chemistry to designate a variety of series or values)alpha
alpha and omega
1. The first and last; signifies God's eternity.
2. The basic meaning of something; the crucial part; the most important aspect of something. The beginning and the end, the first and the last, as in "She had to master the alpha and omega of the new computer program before she could even begin." This idiom and its meaning, based on the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, appears in the New Testament (Revelation 1:8): "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord," where it is repeated three more times. alphabet
1. A set of letters, usually listed in a fixed order, used in writing a language and representing its basic speech sounds; such as, the Cyrillic alphabet.
2. A set of symbols representing units used in communication; especially, speech sounds or words. Word HistoryJust as English-speaking people refer to their A B C's, using the first three letters to mean the complete list, as a whole, so the Greeks used alpha and beta, their names for "a" and "b", the first two letters. The combination of these two, alpha + beta, is the origin of the English word alphabet. alphabetical
1. Arranged or listed in the customary order of the letters of the alphabet.
2. Based on, typical of, or relating to an alphabet; alphabetically. alphabetize
alphabetology
alphanumeric
1. Consisting of both letters and numbers.
2. Consisting of or using letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and mathematical and other conventional symbols: an alphanumeric code. alphavirus
analphabetical
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