Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The 21st letter of the Greek alphabet. See Table at alphabet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The Greek letter
φ , corresponding to the English ph . - n. The Greek letter
φ , corresponding to the English ph .
Wiktionary
- n. The twenty-first letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, the twenty-second letter of Old and Ancient.
- n. A visual illusion caused by lights turning on and off in a sequential pattern that implies motion.
- n. The symbol for the golden ratio.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet
Etymologies
- Late Greek phī, from Greek phei.
Examples
“The number is termed phi, and like its brother pi, the order of its digits is mysteriously unending and seemingly nonrepeating.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking an LPhi-phi is more my speed JWiaDH.”
“One of the most ubiquitous metapatterns in nature—a pattern that follows the “Golden Ratio” called phi—is the universal spiral shape that appears in the trails made by subatomic particles, in the double-helix molecule DNA, in seashells, in the movement pattern of the heart, in tornadoes, in galaxies.”
“One of the most remarkable metapatterns that replicate throughout nature and the universe is defined by the numerical ratio termed phi.”
“One night, a little after twelve o'clock, as he was on the point of going to bed like any plain citizen of regular habits, his Majesty fell to thinking how most accurately to render into English the troublesome Siamese word phi, which admits of a variety of interpretations.”
The English Governess at the Siamese Court
“In art it is possible to find "phi" in so many instances, and of course in architecture.”
“The book is a fascinating story of the history and present understanding of the golden ratio, i.e. the number "phi", or 1.6180339887......”
“If the point of the tongue be placed between the teeth, and air from the mouth be forced between them, the Th sibilant is produced, as in thigh, and should have a proper character, as [TN: Looks like the Greek 'phi'].”
The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society A Poem, with Philosophical Notes
“Across the road from the Abbey theatre, a group of young men knock back brown medicine bottles of "phi", a mix of liquid methadone.”
“To make the most of our stay in krabi we booked a snorkling trip to kho phi phi which is the near by island and is known for it's beatuful waters.”
TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘phi’.
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Math Words
a list of my favorite math words
ruler function, Cauchy sequence, accumulation point, adherent point, isolated point, Dirichlet function, limit, Banach-Tarski par..., closure, dense, frontier, boundary and 21 more...
bilby The remains of King Philippe III, beheaded in 1629. Oct 20, 2008
arby Also an acronym for Protected Health Information, mandated by HIPAA legislation. Oct 29, 2007
seanahan The actual "Golden Ratio" is (1+sqrt(5)) / 2, which is 1.618... Dec 5, 2006
oroboros Greek letter symbol for the irrational number known also as the "golden ratio": 1.618033989...
It is derived by calculating:(sqrt 5) plus-or-minus 1, all divided by 2.
The golden ratio can be characterized as, a:b::b:(a+b), or, using actual figures:
.618... :1 :: 1 : 1.618... Dec 5, 2006