German

Noun

Tau m ‎(genitive Taus or Taues, no plural)

1. dew

Declension

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Middle Low German, from Old Saxon tou, from Proto-Germanic *tawwą.

Noun

Tau n ‎(genitive Taus or Taues, plural Taue)

1. strong rope

Declension

Etymology 3

From Ancient Greek, see tau.

Noun

Tau n ‎(genitive Taus, plural Taus)

1. tau (greek letter)

Declension

English

Ancient Greek Alphabet

← sigma		→ upsilon
Τ τ Ancient Greek: ταῦ
Wikipedia article on tau

Noun

tau ‎(plural taus)

1. 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.
2. 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)
3. (physics, dated) A tau meson, now usually known as a kaon.
4. (physics) An unstable heavy lepton, which decays into a muon or electron; a tauon.
5. (biology) Tau protein, a type of protein that stabilizes microtubules in the human central nervous system, failures of which are associated with forms of dementia.
   • 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.

6. (mathematics, neologism) A constant equal to twice the value of pi; often written τ.

Coordinate terms

• (Greek letter): Previous: sigma. Next: upsilon

Derived terms

• tauon
• tauopathy
• tau lepton
• tau meson
• tau neutrino
• tau protein

Translations

Anagrams

• AUT

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taw/
• Rhymes: -aw

Noun

tau f ‎(plural taus)

1. Tau; the Greek letter Τ (lowercase τ).
2. Tav; the Hebrew letter ת.
3. (religion) A tau cross.

Czech

Noun

tau n

1. tau

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowing from Ancient Greek ταῦ ‎(taû).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑu̯/
• Hyphenation: tau

Noun

tau

1. tau

Declension

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /to/

Noun

tau m ‎(plural tau)

1. tau (Greek letter)
2. (physics) tau, tau

Anagrams

• tua

Hungarian

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ταῦ ‎(taû).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɒu]
• Hyphenation: tau

Noun

tau ‎(plural tauk)

1. tau (Greek letter)

Declension

Icelandic

Etymology

Borrowing from Danish tøj.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tøyː/
• Rhymes: -øyː

Noun

tau n ‎(genitive singular taus, no plural)

1. fabric
2. clothing

Declension

Italian

Noun

tau m, f ‎(invariable)

1. tau (Greek letter)

Anagrams

• tua

Japanese

Romanization

tau

1. rōmaji reading of たう

Lithuanian

Pronoun

tau

1. (second-person singular) dative form of tu.

Lojban

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tau̯/

Cmavo

tau

1. indicates that the next letter's case is flipped when spelling a word

   .abu ry. tau xy. .ibu vy.

   a-r-X-i-v

Related terms

• ga'e
• to'a

Rafsi

tau

1. rafsi of tanru.

Maori

Etymology 1

From Proto-Polynesian *taqu, from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taqun.

Noun

tau

1. year (time it takes for the Earth to complete one revolution of the Sun)
2. year (time it takes for any planetary body to make one revolution around another body)
3. year (a period between set dates that mark a year)
4. year (scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity)
5. year (Julian year)
6. year (level or grade at school or college)

Etymology 2

From Proto-Polynesian *tau (compare Hawaiian kau, Niuean tau, Tongan tau), from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taʀuq (compare Indonesian taruh, Malagasy tao, Malay taruh).

Verb

tau

1. to settle

Niuean

Etymology 1

From Proto-Polynesian *taqu, from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taqun.

Noun

tau

1. year (time it takes for the Earth to complete one revolution of the Sun)
2. year (time it takes for any planetary body to make one revolution around another body)
3. year (a period between set dates that mark a year)
4. year (scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity)
5. year (Julian year)
6. year (level or grade at school or college)

Etymology 2

From Proto-Polynesian *tau (compare Hawaiian kau, Maori tau, Tongan tau), from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taʀuq (compare Indonesian taruh, Malagasy tao, Malay taruh).

Verb

tau

1. fight

North Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian twā. Compare Mooring North Frisian twäär, tou.

Numeral

tau

1. (Föhr-Amrum, Heligoland, Sylt) two

Coordinate terms

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse tog (rope)

Noun

tau n ‎(definite singular tauet, indefinite plural tau, definite plural taua or tauene)

1. a rope
2. (physics) tau lepton
3. tau (Greek letter)

Synonyms

• (rope): rep, reip

Etymology 2

Verb

tau

1. imperative of taue

References

• “tau” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse tog ‎(“rope”)

Alternative forms

• tog

Noun

tau n ‎(definite singular tauet, indefinite plural tau, definite plural taua)

1. a rope
2. (physics) tau lepton
3. tau (Greek letter)

Synonyms

• (rope): reip

References

• “tau” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Noun

tau m (plural taus)

1. tau (name of the Greek letter Τ, τ)

Sotho

Noun

tau

1. lion

Spanish

Noun

tau f ‎(plural taus)

1. tau; the Greek letter Τ, τ
2. tauon (elementary particle)

Synonyms

• (tauon): tauón

See also

• (Greek script letter names) letra; alfa, beta, gamma, delta, épsilon, dseda, eta, zeta, iota, kappa, lambda, mi, ni, xi, ómicron, pi, ro, sigma, tau, ípsilon, fi, ji, psi, omega ^{(Category: es:Greek letter names)}
• (leptons) leptón; electrón, muón, tau/tauón, neutrino electrónico, neutrino muónico, neutrino tauónico

Tahitian

Adjective

tau

1. some

Synonyms

• nau

References

• Yves Lemaître, Lexique du tahitien contemporain (Current Tahitian lexicon), 1995.
• “tau” in Dictionnaire en ligne Tahitien/Français (Online Tahitian–French Dictionary), by the Tahitian Academy.

Tongan

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *tau (compare Hawaiian kau, Maori tau, Niuean tau), from Proto-Oceanic, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taʀuq (compare Indonesian taruh, Malagasy tao, Malay taruh).

Verb

tau

1. fight

Tswana

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ta.u/

Noun

tau class 9/10 ‎(plural ditau)

1. lion