Epsilon

[ep-suh-lon, -luh n or, esp. British, ep-sahy-luh n] /ˈɛp səˌlɒn, -lən or, esp. British, ɛpˈsaɪ lən/

noun
1.
the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet (E, ε).
2.
the consonant sound represented by this letter.
3.
Mathematics. an arbitrarily small quantity, used to indicate that a given quantity is small, or close to zero.
/ˈɛpsɪˌlɒn; ɛpˈsaɪlən/
noun
1.
the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet (Ε, ε), a short vowel, transliterated as e
/ˈɛpsɪˌlɒn; ɛpˈsaɪlən/
noun
1.
(foll by the genitive case of a specified constellation) the fifth brightest star in a constellation: Epsilon Aurigae
n.

from Greek, literally e psilon “bare -e-, -e- and nothing else,” in contradistinction to the diphthong -ai-, which has the same sound. Greek psilon “smooth, simple” is of uncertain origin.

epsilon ep·si·lon (ěp’sə-lŏn’, -lən)
n.

adj.

language
A macro language with high level features including strings and lists, developed by A.P. Ershov at Novosibirsk in 1967. EPSILON was used to implement ALGOL 68 on the M-220.
[“Application of the Machine-Oriented Language Epsilon to Software Development”, I.V. Pottosin et al, in Machine Oriented Higher Level Languages, W. van der Poel, N-H 1974, pp. 417-434].
[Jargon File]
(1995-05-10)

1. The fifth letter of the Greek alphabet.
2. (From the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos) A very small, insignificant, or negligible quantity of something.
The use of epsilon is from the epsilon-delta method of proof in differential calculus.
(2001-07-06)