English Dictionary: Alpha | by the DICT Development Group |
6 results for Alpha | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Alpha \Al"pha\, n. [L. alpha, Gr. 'a`lfa, from Heb. [be]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. In am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. --Rev. xxii. 13. Note: Formerly used also denote the chief; as, Plato was the alpha of the wits. Note: In cataloguing stars, the brightest star of a constellation in designated by Alpha ([alpha]); as, [alpha] Lyr[91]. | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
A \A\ (named [be] in the English, and most commonly [84] 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[d2]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 [84] sound, the Ph[d2]nician alphabet having no vowel symbols. 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 [84] (as in far). 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. {A per se} (L. per se by itself), one pre[89]minent; a nonesuch. [Obs.] O fair Creseide, the flower and A per se Of Troy and Greece. --Chaucer. | |
From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]: | |
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 | |
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]: | |
ALPHA {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) | |
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]: | |
Alpha 1. {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. (1995-05-10) |