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Tau

Tau (name) means a surname found in Chinese and African communities, also the name of a Greek letter used as a mathematical constant. Example: “Tau was elected village leader by the community council.”

name
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A surname found in Chinese and African communities, also the name of a Greek letter used as a mathematical constant.
"Tau was elected village leader by the community council."

Word forms

Taus plural

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_____ was elected village leader by the community council.

Etymology

From Middle English tau, taue, from Latin tau, from Ancient Greek ταῦ (taû) and Hebrew תָּו (tav). Sense 7 was used by Joseph M. Lindenberg in 1991, and popularized by the American educator and entrepreneur Michael Hartl in a 2010 paper which explains that τ resembles π; and that τ is the Greek equivalent of t, the first letter of turn, and 2π corresponds to one turn of a circle with a radius of one unit. Sense 8.1 (“ellipsis of tau lepton or tau particle”) was coined by the American physicist Martin Lewis Perl (1927–2014) after the first letter of Ancient Greek τρίτον (tríton, “third”), since the tau lepton or tauon was the third charged lepton discovered.

Origin: Middle English

Rhymes for Tau

See all rhymes for Tau →

Frequently asked questions

What does “Tau” mean?

The word “Tau” means a surname found in Chinese and African communities, also the name of a Greek letter used as a mathematical constant.

How do you use “Tau” in a sentence?

Here is “Tau” used in a sentence: “Tau was elected village leader by the community council.”

What part of speech is “Tau”?

“Tau” is a name.

Is “Tau” a common word?

“Tau” is an uncommon word in modern English.

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Definitions: FreeDict original editorial · etymology from Wiktionary