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tau

tau

8 8.8
A letter of the Greek alphabet written as Τ or τ
  • noun
  • /taʊ/
translation icon : tau
  • The Swedish Academy cites Perl "for the discovery of the tau lepton" in 1975.
  • tau lepton
  • tau neutrino
  • discovery of the tau

What's E to the I Tau one?

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Examples

  • That's the Greek letter Tau and that's the target payout ratio.

  • The Greek letter tau is commonly used in mathematics and science to represent various constants.

  • In the Greek alphabet, the letter tau is located after sigma and before upsilon.

  • Students in the class learned that the letter tau corresponds to the numeral 300 in Greek numerals.

Compounds

Kendall's tau
  • Specialized
9.1

A number that shows how much two ranked lists agree

Opsanus tau
  • Specialized
9.9

A bottom-dwelling fish with slimy skin, a broad head, and a wide mouth called the oyster toadfish

A number that shows how much two ordered lists agree

9.3

A Christian symbol shaped like the letter T often seen in art

tau neutrino
  • Specialized
9.9

A very small particle linked to the tau, a heavy particle like an electron

tau-minus particle
  • Specialized
9.9

A heavy, short-lived tiny part of matter like an electron but much heavier

tau-plus particle
  • Specialized
9.9

A tiny particle with a positive charge like an electron but much heavier

Surface Forms

tau singular
taus plural

Etymology

Tau is the Greek name for the letter and comes from an old Middle Eastern word taw meaning 'mark' or 'sign'. Its shape is like the English letter T, so a helpful way to remember tau is that it is a letter often used as a symbol in math and science.