epsilon
nounUK /ɛpˈsaɪ.lən/ · CA, US /ˈɛp.sɪˌlɑn/
Etymology From Ancient Greek ἒ ψιλόν (è psilón, “simple Ε”).
1
The fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, ε or Ε, preceded by delta (Δ, δ) and followed by zeta (Ζ, ζ).
2
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences In IPA, the phonetic symbol ɛ that represents the open-mid front unrounded vowel.
3
Mathematics, Sciences An arbitrarily small quantity.
4
Mathematics, Sciences Colloquial A small child.
5
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Colloquial Something negligible or insignificant.
- Yes, we have to convert all the symbol names to upper case at startup, but that’s epsilon.
- All right, okay. My interest is epsilon.2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 106:
- Derived terms
- epsilonic, epsilonics, epsilon iron, epsilonize, epsilon-machine, epsilon number, machine epsilon
- Related terms
- infinitesimal
- Hypernyms
- Greeks