delta

noun, verb — 18 senses

delta

nounalso spelled Delta

/ˈdɛltə/ · [ˈdɛɫtə]

Etymology From Ancient Greek δέλτα (délta), borrowed from a Phoenician word for "door", ultimately from Proto-Semitic *dalt-. Doublet of dalet. * (river): from the triangular shape of the majuscule Greek letter delta Δ * (USSF): from the delta wing, symbol of the USSF, a triangular wing, shaped like the majuscule Greek letter delta Δ

15 senses
  1. 1The fourth letter of the modern Greek alphabet Δ, δ.
  2. 2A landform at the mouth of a river where it empties into…
  3. 3Alternative letter-case form of Delta from the NATO/ICAO…
  4. 4The symbol Δ; A change in a quantity, likely from "d"…
  5. 5The rate of change in an option value with respect to…
  6. 6A value in delta notation indicating the relative…
  7. 7The set of differences between two versions of a file.
  8. 8A small but noticeable effect. Compare epsilon.
  9. 9The angle subtended at the center of a circular arc.
  10. 10A type of cargo bike that has one wheel in front and two in back.
  11. 11The closed figure produced by connecting three coils or…
  12. 12A military unit, nominally headed by a colonel…
  13. 13a star that is usually the fourth brightest of a constellation.
  14. 14one of four baryons consisting of up and down quarks…
  15. 15Ellipsis of delta variant (variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus).
1

The fourth letter of the modern Greek alphabet Δ, δ.

2

A landform at the mouth of a river where it empties into a body of water.

  • Nile Delta
3

Alternative letter-case form of Delta from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.

International standards

4

Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics, Sciences The symbol Δ; A change in a quantity, likely from "d" for "difference".

  • ΔV - "delta vee"(change in velocity, used in rocketry and orbital mechanics)
5

Business, Finance The rate of change in an option value with respect to the underlying asset's price.

6

Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences A value in delta notation indicating the relative abundances of isotopes.

7

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The set of differences between two versions of a file.

  • When you update the file, the system will only save the deltas.
8

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Informal A small but noticeable effect. Compare epsilon.

  • This will slow the main code path down, but only by delta.
9

Geography, Natural sciences, Surveying The angle subtended at the center of a circular arc.

10

A type of cargo bike that has one wheel in front and two in back.

11

Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics Often The closed figure produced by connecting three coils or circuits successively, end for end, especially in a three-phase system.

  • delta winding; delta connection; delta current
12

Government, Military, Politics, War Space Force, US A military unit, nominally headed by a colonel, equivalent to a USAF operations wing, or an army regiment.

13

Astronomy, Natural sciences a star that is usually the fourth brightest of a constellation.

14

Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics one of four baryons consisting of up and down quarks with a combined spin of 3/2: Δ⁺⁺ (uuu), Δ⁺ (uud), Δ⁰ (udd), or Δ⁻ (ddd)

15

Medicine, Sciences Abbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of delta variant (variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus).

Synonyms
garrison
Derived terms
44 termsantidelta, correlation delta, delta acid, delta arrowhead, delta blues, delta cell, delta connection, deltacoronavirus, Delta County, deltacron, delta decay, delta female, deltaform, delta glider, delta hinge, deltaic, delta iron, deltal, delta male, delta metal, delta particle, delta ray, delta-sigma converter, delta strain, deltate, delta test, delta time, delta timing, delta-v, delta variant, delta wing, deltic, Dirac delta, Dirac delta function, hepatitis delta virus, inverted river delta, Kronecker delta, lava delta, nondelta, prodelta, sigma-delta converter, stimulus delta, subdelta, theta-delta
Related terms
deltoid
Hypernyms
Greeks, baryon, resonance

delta

verb

Etymology From Ancient Greek δέλτα (délta), borrowed from a Phoenician word for "door", ultimately from Proto-Semitic *dalt-. Doublet of dalet. * (river): from the triangular shape of the majuscule Greek letter delta Δ * (USSF): from the delta wing, symbol of the USSF, a triangular wing, shaped like the majuscule Greek letter delta Δ

1

Computing, Cryptography, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences To calculate the differences between the characters in an enciphered text and the characters a fixed number of positions previous.

  • Turingery worked on deltaed key to produce the deltaed contribution of the chi-wheels. Turing's discovery that delta-ing would reveal information otherwise hidden was essential to the developments that followed.2007, B. J. Copeland, “Tunny and Colossus: Breaking the Lorenz Schlüsselzusatz traffic”, in Karl de Leeuw, Jan Bergstra, editors, The History of Information Security: A Comprehensive Handbook, Amsterdam: Elsevier, →ISBN, page 458:
2

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences To compare two versions of the same file in order to determine where they differ (where a programmer has made edits).

  • The primary function of this command is to delta the product version file (if it has been retrieved for edit). However, prior to deltaing the product version file, the work source tree is searched to verify that no other source files are still waiting to be deltaed.1992, Israel Silverberg, Source File Management With SCCS, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 166:

Delta

noun
1

The Delta variant of COVID-19.

  • Delta is moderately resistant to vaccines, particularly in people who have received just a single dose.2021 June 22, “Delta coronavirus variant: scientists brace for impact”, in Nature:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for delta and Delta.

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