DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 al·pha /ˈælfə/ 名詞
 希臘字母表的第一個字母 (Α, α), 最初, 開端

 alpha
 字母

 Al·pha n.  The first letter in the Greek alphabet, answering to A, and hence used to denote the beginning.
    In am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.   --Rev. xxii. 13.
 Note: Formerly used also denote the chief; as, Plato was the alpha of the wits.
 Note: ☞ In cataloguing stars, the brightest star of a constellation in designated by Alpha (α); as, α Lyræ.
 ◄ ►

 A The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from the first letter (░) of the Phœnician alphabet, the equivalent of the Hebrew Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was a consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to represent their vowel Alpha with the ä sound, the Phœnician alphabet having no vowel symbols.
 This letter, in English, is used for several different vowel sounds. See Guide to pronunciation, §§ 43-74. The regular long a, as in fate, etc., is a comparatively modern sound, and has taken the place of what, till about the early part of the 17th century, was a sound of the quality of ä (as in far).
 2. Mus. The name of the sixth tone in the model major scale (that in C), or the first tone of the minor scale, which is named after it the scale in A minor. The second string of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble staff. -- A sharp (A♯) is the name of a musical tone intermediate between A and B. -- A flat (A♭) is the name of a tone intermediate between A and G.
 A per se , one preëminent; a nonesuch. [Obs.]
 O fair Creseide, the flower and A per se
 Of Troy and Greece.   --Chaucer.

 alpha
      adj 1: first in order of importance; "the alpha male in the group
             of chimpanzees"; "the alpha star in a constellation is
             the brightest or main star"
      2: early testing stage of a software or hardware product;
         "alpha version"
      n 1: the 1st letter of the Greek alphabet
      2: the beginning of a series or sequence; "the Alpha and Omega,
         the first and the last, the beginning and the
         end"--Revelations