delta

Meaning

Noun

1. The fourth letter of the modern Greek alphabet Δ, δ.
2. A landform at the mouth of a river where it empties into a body of water.
3. (alt-of) Alternative letter-case form of Delta from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.
4. The symbol Δ; A change in a quantity, likely from "d" for "difference".
5. The rate of change in an option value with respect to the underlying asset's price.
6. A value in delta notation indicating the relative abundances of isotopes.
7. The set of differences between two versions of a file.
8. (informal) A small but noticeable effect. Compare epsilon.
9. The angle subtended at the center of a circular arc.
10. A type of cargo bike that has one wheel in front and two in back.
11. (attributive, often) The closed figure produced by connecting three coils or circuits successively, end for end, especially in a three-phase system.
12. (Space-Force, US) A military unit, nominally headed by a colonel, equivalent to a USAF operations wing, or an army regiment.
13. a star that is usually the fourth brightest of a constellation.
14. one of four baryons consisting of up and down quarks with a combined spin of 3/2: Δ⁺⁺ (uuu), Δ⁺ (uud), Δ⁰ (udd), or Δ⁻ (ddd)
15. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of delta variant (variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus).

Verb

1. To calculate the differences between the characters in an enciphered text and the characters a fixed number of positions previous.
2. To compare two versions of the same file in order to determine where they differ (where a programmer has made edits).

Synonyms

ë

triangle

trigon

hedge ratio

mouth

river delta

swampy

deltaic

clay

trilateral

low-lying land

continent

fan

inlet

Translations

delta

delta

δέλτα

delta

Delta

delta

delta

delta

Flussdelta

deltas

دلتا

delta

الدلتا

delta

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈdɛltə/

Etymology

From Ancient Greek δέλτα (délta), borrowed from a Phoenician word for "door", ultimately from Proto-Semitic *dalt-. Doublet of dalet.
* (river): from the triangular shape of the majuscule Greek letter delta Δ
* (USSF): from the delta wing, symbol of the USSF, a triangular wing, shaped like the majuscule Greek letter delta Δ