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Omega

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Omega (US: /ˈmɡə, -ˈmɛɡə, -ˈmɡə/, UK: /ˈmɪɡə/;[1] uppercase Ω, lowercase ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value of 800. The word literally means "great O" (o mega, mega meaning "great"), as opposed to omicron, which means "little O" (o mikron, micron meaning "little").[2]

In phonetic terms, the Ancient Greek Ω represented a long open-mid back rounded vowel IPA: [ɔː], comparable to the "aw" of the English word raw in dialects without the cot–caught merger, in contrast to omicron which represented the close-mid back rounded vowel IPA: [o] , and the digraph ου which represented the long close-mid back rounded vowel IPA: [oː]. In Modern Greek, both omega and omicron represent the mid back rounded vowel IPA: [o̞] or IPA: [ɔ̝]. The letter omega is transliterated into a Latin-script alphabet as ō or simply o.

As the final letter in the Greek alphabet, omega is often used to denote the last, the end, or the ultimate limit of a set, in contrast to alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet; see Alpha and Omega.

History

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Ω was not part of the early (8th century BC) Greek alphabets. It was introduced in the late 7th century BC in the Ionian cities of Asia Minor to denote a long open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔː]. It is a variant of omicron (Ο), broken up at the side (), with the edges subsequently turned outward (, , , ).[3] The Dorian city of Knidos as well as a few Aegean islands, namely Paros, Thasos and Melos, chose the exact opposite innovation, using a broken-up circle for the short and a closed circle for the long /o/.[3]

The name Ωμέγα is Byzantine; in Classical Greek, the letter was called ō () (pronounced /ɔ̂ː/), whereas the omicron was called ou (οὖ) (pronounced /ôː/).[4] The modern lowercase shape goes back to the uncial form , a form that developed during the 3rd century BC in ancient handwriting on papyrus, from a flattened-out form of the letter () that had its edges curved even further upward.[5]

In addition to the Greek alphabet, Omega was also adopted into the early Cyrillic alphabet (see Cyrillic omega (Ѡ, ѡ)). A Raetic variant is conjectured to be at the origin or parallel evolution of the Elder Futhark .

Omega was also adopted into the Latin alphabet, as a letter of the 1982 revision to the African reference alphabet. It's in sparse use (see Latin omega).

The symbol Ω (uppercase letter)

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Plaque in Kos with "underlined O" form of omega

The uppercase letter Ω is used as a symbol:

Omega-shaped entrance to the Panteón de la Cruz in Aguascalientes, representing the end of life.[9]
  • Other:
    • In eschatology, the symbol for the end of everything
    • In molecular biology, the symbol is used as shorthand to signify a genetic construct introduced by a two-point crossover
    • Omega Particle in the Star Trek universe
    • The final form of NetNavi bosses in some of the Mega Man Battle Network games
    • A secret boss in the Final Fantasy series called Omega ( Ω ) Weapon.
    • A character from the series Doctor Who called Omega, believed to be one of the creators of the Time Lords of Gallifrey.
    • The symbol for the highest power level of a PSI attack in the Mother/EarthBound games
    • A symbol used by U.S. citizens in the 1960s & 1970s to denote resistance to the U.S. war in Viet Nam. Adapted from the SI unit for electrical resistance.[10]
    • It's used along with Alpha in the Alpha and Omega, a Christian symbol.

The symbol ω (lowercase letter)

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The minuscule letter ω is used as a symbol:

Character encodings

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Greek omega/Coptic oou

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Character information
Preview Ω ω
Unicode name GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER OOU COPTIC SMALL LETTER OOU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 937 U+03A9 969 U+03C9 11440 U+2CB0 11441 U+2CB1
UTF-8 206 169 CE A9 207 137 CF 89 226 178 176 E2 B2 B0 226 178 177 E2 B2 B1
Numeric character reference Ω Ω ω ω Ⲱ Ⲱ ⲱ ⲱ
Named character reference Ω, Ω ω
DOS Greek 151 97 224 E0
DOS Greek-2 213 D5 250 FA
Windows 1253 217 D9 249 F9
TeX \Omega \omega

[13]

Cyrillic omega

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Character information
Preview Ѡ ѡ
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER OMEGA COMBINING CYRILLIC LETTER OMEGA
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 1120 U+0460 1121 U+0461 42619 U+A67B
UTF-8 209 160 D1 A0 209 161 D1 A1 234 153 187 EA 99 BB
Numeric character reference Ѡ Ѡ ѡ ѡ ꙻ ꙻ


Character information
Preview Ѻ ѻ
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ROUND OMEGA CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ROUND OMEGA CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BROAD OMEGA CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BROAD OMEGA
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 1146 U+047A 1147 U+047B 42572 U+A64C 42573 U+A64D
UTF-8 209 186 D1 BA 209 187 D1 BB 234 153 140 EA 99 8C 234 153 141 EA 99 8D
Numeric character reference Ѻ Ѻ ѻ ѻ Ꙍ Ꙍ ꙍ ꙍ

Latin/IPA omega

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Character information
Preview ɷ 𐞤
Unicode name LATIN SMALL LETTER CLOSED OMEGA LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA LATIN SMALL LETTER OMEGA MODIFIER LETTER SMALL CLOSED OMEGA
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 631 U+0277 42934 U+A7B6 42935 U+A7B7 67492 U+107A4
UTF-8 201 183 C9 B7 234 158 182 EA 9E B6 234 158 183 EA 9E B7 240 144 158 164 F0 90 9E A4
UTF-16 631 0277 42934 A7B6 42935 A7B7 55297 57252 D801 DFA4
Numeric character reference ɷ ɷ Ꞷ Ꞷ ꞷ ꞷ 𐞤 𐞤

Technical omega symbols

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Character information
Preview
Unicode name APL FUNCTIONAL SYMBOL OMEGA APL FUNCTIONAL SYMBOL OMEGA UNDERBAR OHM SIGN INVERTED OHM SIGN
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 9077 U+2375 9081 U+2379 8486 U+2126 8487 U+2127
UTF-8 226 141 181 E2 8D B5 226 141 185 E2 8D B9 226 132 166 E2 84 A6 226 132 167 E2 84 A7
Numeric character reference ⍵ ⍵ ⍹ ⍹ Ω Ω ℧ ℧
Named character reference ℧

Mathematical omega

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Character information
Preview 𝛀 𝛚 𝛺 𝜔 𝜴 𝝎
Unicode name MATHEMATICAL BOLD
CAPITAL OMEGA
MATHEMATICAL BOLD
SMALL OMEGA
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
CAPITAL OMEGA
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC
SMALL OMEGA
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
CAPITAL OMEGA
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC
SMALL OMEGA
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 120512 U+1D6C0 120538 U+1D6DA 120570 U+1D6FA 120596 U+1D714 120628 U+1D734 120654 U+1D74E
UTF-8 240 157 155 128 F0 9D 9B 80 240 157 155 154 F0 9D 9B 9A 240 157 155 186 F0 9D 9B BA 240 157 156 148 F0 9D 9C 94 240 157 156 180 F0 9D 9C B4 240 157 157 142 F0 9D 9D 8E
UTF-16 55349 57024 D835 DEC0 55349 57050 D835 DEDA 55349 57082 D835 DEFA 55349 57108 D835 DF14 55349 57140 D835 DF34 55349 57166 D835 DF4E
Numeric character reference 𝛀 𝛀 𝛚 𝛚 𝛺 𝛺 𝜔 𝜔 𝜴 𝜴 𝝎 𝝎


Character information
Preview 𝝮 𝞈 𝞨 𝟂
Unicode name MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD CAPITAL OMEGA
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD SMALL OMEGA
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL OMEGA
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF
BOLD ITALIC SMALL OMEGA
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 120686 U+1D76E 120712 U+1D788 120744 U+1D7A8 120770 U+1D7C2
UTF-8 240 157 157 174 F0 9D 9D AE 240 157 158 136 F0 9D 9E 88 240 157 158 168 F0 9D 9E A8 240 157 159 130 F0 9D 9F 82
UTF-16 55349 57198 D835 DF6E 55349 57224 D835 DF88 55349 57256 D835 DFA8 55349 57282 D835 DFC2
Numeric character reference 𝝮 𝝮 𝞈 𝞈 𝞨 𝞨 𝟂 𝟂

These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate the style of the text.

References

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  1. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). "omega". Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  2. ^ "The Greek Alphabet".
  3. ^ a b Anne Jeffery (1961), The local scripts of archaic Greece, p.37–38.
  4. ^ Herbert Weir Smyth. A Greek Grammar for Colleges. §1
  5. ^ Edward M. Thompson (1912), Introduction to Greek and Latin paleography, Oxford: Clarendon. p.144
  6. ^ Capilla, José E.; Arevalo, Javier Rodriguez; Castaño, Silvino Castaño; Teijeiro, María Fé Díaz; del Moral, Rut Sanchez; Diaz, Javier Heredia (19 September 2012). "Mapping Oxygen-18 in Meteoric Precipitation over Peninsular Spain Using Geostatistical Tools" (PDF). cedex.es. Valencia, Spain: Ninth Conference on Geostatistics for Environmental Applications. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  7. ^ Excerpts from The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0. Retrieved 11 October 2006.
  8. ^ Weisstein, Eric W. "Prime Factor". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Desde la Revolución hasta el 2020". Gobierno de Aguascalientes. Retrieved 7 August 2024. ...su fachada representa a una omega que simboliza el final de la vida.
  10. ^ "Resistance should begin now - Substance News".
  11. ^ "first uncountable ordinal in nLab". NCatLab.org. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  12. ^ "Definition of Omega Male, BuzzWord from Macmillan Dictionary". macmillandictionary.com. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  13. ^ Unicode Code Charts: Greek and Coptic (Range: 0370-03FF)
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  • Media related to Omega (letter) at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of ω at Wiktionary