Greek Alphabet
α β γ δ — Greek letters with pronunciation.
Overview
The Greek Alphabet reference lists every Greek letter — upper and lower case — together with its name, the closest English transliteration and a hint at its pronunciation in both Classical and Modern Greek. From alpha and beta through omega, the table covers the 24 letters of the standard alphabet that science, mathematics, fraternity life and theology all draw on.
It serves engineering students trying to read formulas with confidence, classicists settling on a transliteration scheme and anyone learning Modern Greek for travel. Long-tail queries it answers include "how to pronounce Greek letter xi", "alpha beta gamma alphabet list", "Greek letter chi vs Latin x" and "Greek letter eta in math".
How it works
The table is a fixed 24-row dataset. Each row carries the uppercase letter, the lowercase letter, the letter's name (Greek and English spellings), the Roman transliteration and a phonetic note that approximates both Classical Attic and standard Modern Greek pronunciation.
Where Modern Greek differs significantly from Classical (β shifting from "b" to "v", η from "ay" to "ee", υ from "u" to "ee"), both pronunciations are shown side by side. Final sigma (ς) is included as a positional variant of σ.
Examples
Α α → alpha → /a/ → a in "father"
Β β → beta → Classical /b/, Modern /v/
Π π → pi → /p/ → p in "spy"
Ω ω → omega → /ɔː/ (long "o" — "great")
FAQ
Why does Modern Greek sound so different from Classical?
Between roughly 300 BC and 300 AD, several vowels and consonants shifted. Beta moved from /b/ to /v/, eta moved from /ɛː/ to /i/, and several other vowels merged on /i/ in a process linguists call iotacism.
What's the difference between σ and ς?
They are the same letter — sigma. The form ς is used at the end of a word and σ is used everywhere else. Uppercase is always Σ.
Why is the letter "xi" so common in physics?
The Greek alphabet is short enough that most letters get reused. Xi (ξ) shows up in random variables, particle physics and damping ratios mostly because the more common letters were already taken.
Are digamma and stigma part of the alphabet?
No, not in the standard 24-letter alphabet. Digamma (Ϝ) and a few other letters survived into Greek numeric notation but were dropped from the literary alphabet.
How do I type Greek letters?
On most systems install a Greek polytonic or monotonic keyboard layout. For technical writing, LaTeX commands like \alpha \beta \omega are the conventional way, and Unicode codepoints work in any modern editor.