Greek alphabet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Use in other languages | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Related topics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Xi is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet (uppercase Ξ, lowercase ξ; Greek: ξι), representing the voiceless consonant cluster IPA: [ks]. Its name is pronounced [ksi] in Modern Greek, and generally /zaɪ/ or /ksaɪ/ in English.[1] In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 60. Xi was derived from the Phoenician letter samekh
Xi is distinct from the letter chi, which gave its form to the Latin letter X.
Both in classical Ancient Greek and in Modern Greek, the letter Ξ represents the consonant cluster /ks/. In some archaic local variants of the Greek alphabet, this letter was missing. Instead, especially in the dialects of most of the Greek mainland and Euboea, the cluster /ks/ was represented by Χ (which in classical Greek is chi, used for /kʰ/).
Because this variant of the Greek alphabet was used in Magna Graecia (the Greek colonies in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula), the Latin alphabet borrowed Χ rather than Ξ as the Latin letter that represented the /ks/ cluster that was also present in Latin.
The Xi was adopted into the early Cyrillic alphabet, as the letter ksi (Ѯ, ѯ).
The uppercase letter Ξ is used as a symbol in various contexts.
The lowercase letter ξ is used as a symbol for:
Unicode Code Charts: Greek and Coptic (Range: 0370-03FF)
Preview | Ξ | ξ | Ⲝ | ⲝ | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI | GREEK LOWERCASE LETTER XI | COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER KSI | COPTIC LOWERCASE LETTER KSI | ||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 926 | U+039E | 958 | U+03BE | 11420 | U+2C9C | 11421 | U+2C9D |
UTF-8 | 206 158 | CE 9E | 206 190 | CE BE | 226 178 156 | E2 B2 9C | 226 178 157 | E2 B2 9D |
Numeric character reference | Ξ |
Ξ |
ξ |
ξ |
Ⲝ |
Ⲝ |
ⲝ |
ⲝ |
Named character reference | Ξ | ξ | ||||||
DOS Greek | 141 | 8D | 165 | A5 | ||||
DOS Greek-2 | 189 | BD | 232 | E8 | ||||
Windows 1253 | 206 | CE | 238 | EE | ||||
TeX | \Xi | \xi |
The following characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.
Preview | 𝚵 | 𝛏 | 𝛯 | 𝜉 | 𝜩 | 𝝃 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | MATHEMATICAL BOLD CAPITAL XI |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD LOWERCASE XI |
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC CAPITAL XI |
MATHEMATICAL ITALIC LOWERCASE XI |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL XI |
MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC LOWERCASE XI | ||||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 120501 | U+1D6B5 | 120527 | U+1D6CF | 120559 | U+1D6EF | 120585 | U+1D709 | 120617 | U+1D729 | 120643 | U+1D743 |
UTF-8 | 240 157 154 181 | F0 9D 9A B5 | 240 157 155 143 | F0 9D 9B 8F | 240 157 155 175 | F0 9D 9B AF | 240 157 156 137 | F0 9D 9C 89 | 240 157 156 169 | F0 9D 9C A9 | 240 157 157 131 | F0 9D 9D 83 |
UTF-16 | 55349 57013 | D835 DEB5 | 55349 57039 | D835 DECF | 55349 57071 | D835 DEEF | 55349 57097 | D835 DF09 | 55349 57129 | D835 DF29 | 55349 57155 | D835 DF43 |
Numeric character reference | 𝚵 |
𝚵 |
𝛏 |
𝛏 |
𝛯 |
𝛯 |
𝜉 |
𝜉 |
𝜩 |
𝜩 |
𝝃 |
𝝃 |
Preview | 𝝣 | 𝝽 | 𝞝 | 𝞷 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD CAPITAL XI |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD LOWERCASE XI |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL XI |
MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC LOWERCASE XI | ||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 120675 | U+1D763 | 120701 | U+1D77D | 120733 | U+1D79D | 120759 | U+1D7B7 |
UTF-8 | 240 157 157 163 | F0 9D 9D A3 | 240 157 157 189 | F0 9D 9D BD | 240 157 158 157 | F0 9D 9E 9D | 240 157 158 183 | F0 9D 9E B7 |
UTF-16 | 55349 57187 | D835 DF63 | 55349 57213 | D835 DF7D | 55349 57245 | D835 DF9D | 55349 57271 | D835 DFB7 |
Numeric character reference | 𝝣 |
𝝣 |
𝝽 |
𝝽 |
𝞝 |
𝞝 |
𝞷 |
𝞷 |
Uppercase Ξ is used as an 'E' to stylise company names/logos like Razer (styled as RΛZΞR), Tesla (styled as TΞSLA), musician Banners (styled as BANNΞRS), and in South Korean boy group ZE:A's newest logo (styled as "ZΞA") (Compare: Heavy Metal umlaut; Faux Cyrillic)