beta
/ˈbiːtə
/noun
1The second letter of the Greek alphabet (Β, β), transliterated as ‘b’.But, just in right now, Tropical Storm Gamma, the third letter of the Greek alphabet, alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and so on and so on....
- It probably had something to do with beta being the second letter in the Greek alphabet.
- He named them using the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta.
1.1 [as modifier] Denoting the second of a series of items, categories, forms of a chemical compound, etc. beta carotene beta blocker...
- For example, the babies are taught to be satisfied with their own caste of which there are five: alphas at the top, then betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons at the bottom.
- Does a fetus attain an alpha / beta / theta/delta brainwave state?
- That smile. It shouts ‘hit me’ at every alpha male, and quite a few beta and zeta ones too.
1.2British A second-class mark given for a piece of work or an examination paper.
1.3 informal short for beta test.Like dtSearch, it offers a list of words as you type, although Google has offered a limited version of this feature in beta for its main search engine....
- The online help files in our version were still in beta.
- Firefox and Mac version in beta in a couple of months.
1.4 (Beta) [followed by Latin genitive] Astronomy The second (typically second-brightest) star in a constellation: Beta Virginis...
- These observation included that of the occultation of the star Beta Scorpii by the moon.
- The orbiting pair in Beta Persei consists of a star that is a younger version of our sun, along with a hotter companion.
- The vote was nearly unanimous, only Simon and a few officers who's planets had close ties to Beta Crucis.
1.5 [as modifier] Relating to beta decay or beta particles: beta emitters...
- By 1963, the year of my parent's marriage, the average release of beta emitters from reactor effluent was 14, 500 curies per day.
- Titanium 45 has two forms, one a beta positive and gamma emitter with a half-life of 3.08 hours and a second form with a half-life of 21 days.
- In addition, a number of radioisotopes, both natural and man-made, have been identified as beta emitters.
1.6 (also beta coefficient) A measure of the movement in price of a security relative to the stock market as a whole, used to indicate possible risk: a fund with a beta of 0.58 is less volatile...
- It we were to equate the rate of return on a bus firm's stock to the rate of return on the market portfolio (i.e. a beta coefficient of 1.0), then the risk-adjusted nominal cost of borrowing would be 25.03%.
- At age 17 the beta coefficient for Personal Meaning was - 1.88, while that for the next strongest construct, Interpersonal Understanding, was -.77.
- This point is illustrated by the reduction in the standardised beta coefficient of NA from .45.
Origin
Via Latin from Greek.