Tau
Pronunciation
- IPA: /taÊŠ/, /tÉ”Ë/
Origin
From Ancient Greek ταῦ.
Full definition of tau
Noun
tau
(plural taus)- The name of the letter Τ/τ in the Greek, Hebrew and ancient Semitic alphabets, being the nineteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, the twenty-first letter of Old and Ancient Greek.
- A Τ-shaped sign or structure; a St. Anthony's cross, sometimes considered as a sacred symbol.
- 1658: Nor shall we take in the mysticall Tau, or the Crosse of our blessed Saviour, which having in some descriptions an Empedon or crossing foot-stay, made not one single transversion. — Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007, p. 168)
- (particle, dated) A tau meson, now usually known as a kaon.
- (particle) An unstable heavy lepton, which decays into a muon or electron; a tauon.
- (biology) A type of protein used to stabilise microtubules.
- 1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial 2004, p. 263:Quite what that job is remains obscure, but one theory is that it is to stabilise another protein called tau, which is supposed in turn to keep in shape the tubular ‘skeleton’ of a neuron.
- (mathematics, neologism) A constant equal to twice the value of pi; often written Ï„.