Word.ws English Dictionary

alpha conversion

alpha conversion noun: one of the three rewrite rules of lambda calculus, in which a bound variable of a lambda term is replaced by another variable across its entire scope. So if there is a lambda term of the form (λx.t) and it is desired to have x replaced with y, then the rewritten lambda term would have the form (λy.t[y/x]) where t[y/x], "t with y instead of x", has had all free instances of x in t replaced with y.

Noun

alpha conversion (countable and uncountable, plural alpha conversions)

  1. One of the three rewrite rules of lambda calculus, in which a bound variable of a lambda term is replaced by another variable across its entire scope. So if there is a lambda term of the form (λx.t) and it is desired to have x replaced with y, then the rewritten lambda term would have the form (λy.t[y/x]) where t[y/x], "t with y instead of x", has had all free instances of x in t replaced with y.

Forms of alpha conversion

pluralalpha conversions

Questions about alpha conversion

What does alpha conversion mean?
Alpha conversion means one of the three rewrite rules of lambda calculus, in which a bound variable of a lambda term is replaced by another variable across its entire scope. So if there is a lambda term of the form (λx.t) and it is desired to have x replaced with y, then the rewritten lambda term would have the form (λy.t[y/x]) where t[y/x], "t with y instead of x", has had all free instances of x in t replaced with y.
What part of speech is alpha conversion?
Alpha conversion is a noun.
What is the plural of alpha conversion?
The plural of alpha conversion is alpha conversions.

Words near alpha conversion in the dictionary

  1. alpha chain disease
  2. alpha channel
  3. alpha channels
  4. alpha cities
  5. alpha city
  6. alpha conversion
  7. alpha conversions
  8. Alpha Coronae Borealis
  9. Alpha Crucis
  10. Alpha Cygni
  11. alpha decay

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alpha conversion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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