Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The 18th letter of the Greek alphabet. See Table at alphabet.
- n. A sigma factor.
- n. A sigma baryon.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The name of the Greek letter
Σ, σ, ς , equivalent to the English S, s. (For its early forms, see under S.) There is also an uncial form (seeuncial ), namely C, made fromΣ by curving and slighting; this has been revived in some recent alphabets of Greek. - n. An S-shaped or sigmoid flesh-spicule of a sponge.
- n. The curve of the letter S or any approximate curve.
- n. In descriptive biol., one of the S-shaped ridges on the surface of certain molluscan shells, as those of gastropods and cephalopods.
- n. In experimental psychology, the time-unit, of a second: abbreviated
σ .
Wiktionary
- n. The name for the eighteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, the nineteenth letter of Old and Ancient.
- n. mathematics The symbol Σ, used to indicate summation of a set or series.
- n. statistics The symbol σ, used to indicate one standard deviation from the mean, particularly in a normal distribution.
GNU Webster's 1913
WordNet 3.0
- n. the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet
Etymologies
- Greek sīgma, of Phoenician origin; see smk in Semitic roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Three sigma" is a manufacturing concept used to control processes, a concept that I am intimately familiar with.”
“The standard of comparison, 125 [sigma], is shorter than most of the reaction times recorded, but since the time measured was always that from the breaking to the making of the circuit passing through the chronoscope it cannot be urged that there were errors resulting from the difference of magnetization which was caused by variations in the reaction time.”
“I called sigma support line and they gave mixed opinions.”
“He was as honorably decorated as any of the American Joint Chief’s of Staff; even wearing his gold colored in sigma upon his green military cap.”
“This significance is 3.8 sigma, which is comparable to the UTfit difference, although in a totally different process.”
New Physics in Heavy Flavors: The plot thickens « Imaginary Potential
“Also, I believe Toyota is six sigma, which is less than 3.4 errors/1 million chances or 00. 00034%, so they would tear their arms out if they were at 00.04%. —”
“Summers quoted at Marginal Revolution rationalized by talking about the gender ratios at 3.5-4 sigma, which is above the 99.9th percentile.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » So Lawrence Summers Was Fired For Being Correct?
“Usually we demand five sigma, that is five standard deviations from the peak, to claim “discovery.””
“Often, that level of probability is arbitrarily set to a value like 95%, or two standard deviations, two sigma, which is about 98% for a normal distribution.”
“I mean, the highest rated PS3 game thusfar is ninja gaiden sigma, which is simply another remake of the origional from the xbox a spiffy remake, but a remake nonetheless.”
EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Paying the Price in the graphics war
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sigma’.
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 346 more...
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Brand Theft Auto
A marque list for cars--models or companies who've used common words as their name.
explorer, navigator, frontier, mustang, quest, cougar, sidekick, legend, legacy, ranger, voyager, civic and 266 more...
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Sponge Spicule Terminology
A list of the richly esoteric and myriad terms that have been used in the classification and study of fossil and modern sponge spicules.
The morphology of sponge spicule elements paral...monaxon, monaxonial, monaxial, monactine, monactinal, monactinal monaxon, diactinal monaxon, diactine, biradiate, rhabdus, oxea, uniaxial and 186 more...
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reginaterra's Words
purl, blow, squish, andean, generality, adaptation, lush, pack, filter, acquiesce, abstraction, sweet and 508 more...
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Letters
See also The Phonetic alphabet by oroboros.
aye, bee, cee, dee, e, ef, eff, gee, aitch, eye, jay, kay and 452 more...
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samuraizack's Words
floccinaucinihili..., pneumonoultramicr..., bombastic, existentialistic, velocipede, aglet, anatomical snuffbox, wonk, tang, funambulist, quakebuttock, flews and 390 more...
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Phylum Obscurata Botanica
It Makes The Words, or It gets The Hose. Again.
mormo, liparos, leptotes, gaster, graphe, opsis, kochliodes, cirrus, xhonseoa, rhynchos, kata, kalos and 157 more...
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My karma ran over my dogma
enigma, zeugma, magma, stigma, smegma, sigma, bregma, kerygma, agma, central dogma, chalcostigma, regma and 2 more...
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Greek Alphabet
The letters in the Greek alphabet, with a bit of history on each one.
omega, psi, chi, phi, upsilon, tau, sigma, rho, pi, omicron, xi, nu and 12 more...
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dudu's Words
inevitable, gravel, scorched, oblivious, doze off, grate, gaunt, meritocracy, forensic accountants, proselytize, prolixity, prune and 48 more...
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abc's
alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu and 12 more...
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Odd Words
Miscellaneous words that deserve some kind of recognition.
airy, conjunctive, indicative, disjunctive, subjunctive, seraph, seraphim, serif, sans, theta, sigma, delta and 61 more...
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ovando's Words
alfa, luna, durazno, laberinto, griego, sol, beta, gama, delta, omega, épsilon, iota and 41 more...
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Mathematics
function, integer, operator, series, sequence, constant, sigma, operand, coefficient, matrix, array
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gma! gma!
I might just be tired, but it sounds like the cry of some bandersnatch
smegma, magma, zeugma, enigma, stigma, sigma, bregma, pragma, regma, migma, dogma, syntagma
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sigma.
missanthropist Greek C~shaped. Jul 11, 2008