Beta

"β" redirects here. For the German eszett, see ß. For other uses, see Beta (disambiguation).

Greek alphabet
Αα	Alpha	Νν	Nu
Ββ	Beta	Ξξ	Xi
Γγ	Gamma	Οο	Omicron
Δδ	Delta	Ππ	Pi
Εε	Epsilon	Ρρ	Rho
Ζζ	Zeta	Σσς	Sigma
Ηη	Eta	Ττ	Tau
Θθ	Theta	Υυ	Upsilon
Ιι	Iota	Φφ	Phi
Κκ	Kappa	Χχ	Chi
Λλ	Lambda	Ψψ	Psi
Μμ	Mu	Ωω	Omega
History
Archaic local variants  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·
Ligatures (ϛ, ȣ, ϗ) · Diacritics
Numerals: (6) · (90) · (900)
In other languages
Bactrian  · Coptic  · Albanian
Scientific symbols
Book  · Category · Commons

Beta (uppercase Β, lowercase β; Greek: βήτα) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive /b/. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative /v/.

The letter Beta was derived from the Phoenician letter Beth . Letters that arose from Beta include the Roman letter ⟨B⟩ and the Cyrillic letters ⟨Б⟩ and ⟨В⟩.

In the system of Greek numerals Beta has a value of 2.

Name

Like the names of most other Greek letters, the name of beta was adopted from the acrophonic name of the corresponding letter in Phoenician, which was the common Semitic word *bayt ('house'). In Greek, the name was βῆτα bêta, pronounced [bɛ̂ːta] in Ancient Greek. It is spelled βήτα in the modern monotonic orthography, and pronounced [ˈvita]. In English, the name is pronounced either /ˈbeɪtə/ (US) or /ˈbiːtə/ (UK)).

Uses

The Greek alphabet on an ancient black figure vessel, with the characteristically angular beta of the time.

Typography

In some high-quality typesetting, especially in the French tradition, a typographic variant of the lowercase letter without a descender is used within a word: βίβλος is printed βίϐλος.

In typesetting technical literature, it is a commonly made mistake to use the German letter ß (a double-s ligature) as a replacement for β. The two letters resemble each other in some fonts, but they are unrelated.

Mathematics and science

Beta is often used to denote a variable in mathematics and physics, where it often has specific meanings for certain applications, such as representing beta radiation. In regression analysis, ⟨B⟩ symbolizes non-standardized partial slope coefficients, whereas ⟨β⟩ represents standardized (standard deviation-score form) coefficients; in both cases, the coefficients reflect the change in the criterion Y per one-unit change in the value of the associated predictor X.

Finance

Beta is used in finance as a measure of investment portfolio risk.

International Phonetic Alphabet

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, Greek minuscule beta denotes a voiced bilabial fricative [β].

Meteorology

• The name Beta was used as a name during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season as Hurricane Beta.

Technical notes

description	character	Unicode	HTML
GREEK CAPITAL LETTER BETA	Β	U+0392	Β Β
GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA	β	U+03B2	β β
GREEK BETA SYMBOL	ϐ	U+03D0	ϐ
MODIFIER LETTER SMALL BETA	◌ᵝ	U+1D5D	ᵝ
GREEK SUBSCRIPT SMALL LETTER BETA	◌ᵦ	U+1D66	ᵦ