Word.ws English Dictionary

beta

UK/ˈbiːtə//ˈbeɪtə/

beta noun: the second letter of the Greek alphabet (Β, β), preceded by alpha (Α, α) and followed by gamma, (Γ, γ). In modern Greek it represents the voiced labiodental fricative sound of v found in the English words have and vase. Also the alternative spelling of betta.

beta: the second letter of the Greek alphabet (Β, β), preceded by alpha (Α, α) and followed by gamma, (Γ,...
Image: Mrmw, Saltmarsh, Grifomaniacs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

beta (countable and uncountable, plural betas)

  1. The second letter of the Greek alphabet (Β, β), preceded by alpha (Α, α) and followed by gamma, (Γ, γ). In modern Greek it represents the voiced labiodental fricative sound of v found in the English words have and vase.
  2. (rare) An academic grade better than a gamma and worse than an alpha.
    • But let me tell you happy extroverts that only Vera Telfer and H. A. C. Evans got even an alpha minus; only T. E. Hendrie got a beta plus […]1957, R. Avery, “This Week’s Competition”, in Time & Tide, volume 38, number 1, page 184
    • Mr Taylor would hardly give a beta minus to one of his history students […]1964, Randolph Churchill, The Fight for the Tory Leadership: A Contemporary Chronicle, page 49
  3. Average sensitivity of a security's price to overall securities market prices.
    • An inspection of the results indicate that Property Trusts is the lowest risk industry with a long-run beta of 0.4520 while Gold is the highest risk industry with a long-run beta of 1.5229.2001, Cheng-Few Lee, editor, Advances in Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, volume 8, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 143
  4. (uncountable) The phase of development after alpha testing and before launch, in which software, while not complete, has been released to potential users for testing.
    • The company is offering a public beta program to test the software.
  5. (countable) Software in such a phase; a preliminary version.
    • He quickly deduced our goal—ship a quality beta—but he also quickly discerned that we had no idea about the quality of the product because of our pile of untriaged bugs.2007, Michael Lopp, Managing Humans, page 107
    • We will assume you got the .tgz version—later 2.x series versions such as 2.5.2 or 2.6.0 should be okay, provided they are production releases (not alphas, betas, or release candidates).2007, Mark Summerfield, Rapid GUI Programming with Python and Qt: The Definitive Guide to PyQt Programming, Pearson Education, →ISBN
  6. (proscribed, uncountable) Any kind of content from early development that was not used in the final product.
    • beta levels; beta characters; beta items in a video game
  7. Information about a route which may aid someone in climbing it.
  8. A beta particle or beta ray.
  9. Sideslip angle.
  10. The range of engine power settings in which the blade pitch angle of a constant-speed propeller is controlled directly by the angle of the engine's throttle lever (rather than varying with engine torque and airspeed to maintain a constant propeller RPM), allowing the propeller to be disked to generate high drag and slow the aircraft quickly.
  11. (slang) In omegaverse fiction, a person of a secondary sex similar to normal humans, lacking the biological drives of alphas and omegas but generally capable of bonding and mating with either.
    • Many A/B/O stories posit societies where biological imperatives divide people based on wolf pack hierarchies into sexual dominants (alphas), sexual submissives (omegas), and everyone else (betas).2013, Kristina Busse, “Pon Farr, Mpreg, Bonds, and the Rise of the Omegaverse”, in Anne Jamison, editor, Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, page 317
    • In ASD, the beta also functions as a contrast, as Yuri is assumed to be a beta before his first heat reveals his omega status.2017, Marianne Gunderson, "What is an omega? Rewriting sex and gender in omegaverse fanfiction", thesis submitted to the University of Oslo, page 99

Adjective

beta (not comparable)

  1. Identifying a molecular position in an organic chemical compound.
  2. Designates the second in an order of precedence.
  3. Preliminary; prerelease. Refers to an incomplete version of a product released for initial testing.
  4. (object or action) Associated with the beta male/female archetype.

Verb

beta (third-person singular simple present betas, present participle betaing, simple past and past participle betaed)

  1. To preliminarily release computer software for initial testing prior to final release.
  2. (Internet) To beta-read a text.
    • My thanks to Heather; who read it and betaed it. Thank you.1999, sqira a., in alt.tv.x-files.creative http://groups.google.com/group/alt.tv.x-files.creative/msg/29d32d27e61755f2?dmode=source
    • Beta’ing is time-consuming, so asking a lot of people to give you a detailed analysis isn’t the most polite thing to do.2000, Elizabeth Durack, quoted in Angelina I. Karpovich, “The Audience as Editor: The Role of Beta Readers in Online Fan Fiction Communities” (essay), in Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse (editors)...

Noun (2)

beta (countable and uncountable, plural betas)

  1. (Hinglish, India, North, Pakistan, colloquial) a term of endearment, used towards someone of equal or lower standing such as a friend or child, similar to brother or son
    • Don't pick that up, beta, it's dirty.

Proper noun capitalized: Beta

Beta

  1. (abbreviation, clipping) Clipping of Betamax
    • The digital revolution is changing these rules, but as of this writing, generally you submit your music video to the network for review on Beta tape.2011, Anthony Q. Artis, The Shut Up and Shoot Freelance Video Guide

Noun (3) capitalized: Beta

Beta (plural Betas)

  1. A member of Generation Beta.
    • With an estimated 90% of all online content expected to be generated in some way shape or form by AI by as early as 2026, theorists predict Betas will grow up in a world heavily fraught by deepfake content, truth will no longer be a fixed concept, and they will spend their lives searching for...2024 April, Lisa Morgan, “Move over Gen Alpha – is your business ready for the Artificials?”, in Toy World: The Business Magazine with a Passion for Toys, volume 13, number 8, Hemel Hempstead...
    • For the Betas, AI and robots will be a normal part of life for them.2024 December 31, Aliyya Sawadjaan, “Buhbye, Gen Alpha! Babies born from this moment on will be from Generation Beta”, in Daily Tribune, Makati: Concept and Information Group, Inc., archived from the...

Also used as

beta is also the alternative spelling of betta.

beta is also the ellipsis of beta male.

beta meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam

beta in Hindi

बीटा, बीटा करना

beta in Marathi

बीटा, बीटा करणे

beta in Bengali

বিটা, বেটা, বিটা করা

beta in Malayalam

ബീറ്റ, ബീറ്റാ, ബീറ്റാ ചെയ്യുക
More languagesFewer languages
beta in Kannada
ಬೀಟಾ
beta in Punjabi
ਬੀਟਾ, ਬੀਟਾ ਕਰਨਾ
beta in Gujarati
બીટા
beta in Odia
ବିଟା, ବୀଟା, ବିଟା କରିବା
beta in Nepali
बीटा, बिटा, बिटामा
beta in Tagalog
beta
beta in Arabic
بِيتَا betā
beta in Malay
beta
beta in Indonesian
beta
beta in Persian
بتا betâ
beta in Thai
บีตา bii-dtâa
beta in Vietnamese
bêta

Examples of beta in a sentence

  • My essays, still written under the influence of Kubla Khan, nearly always got a beta plus.1979, Angus MacVicar, Silver in My Sporran: Confessions of a Writing Man, page 76:
  • Before Evolve had even seen its first beta, the game's publisher dipped its toe into presenting it as an eSport.2015 February 14, Steven Strom, “Evolve Review: Middle of the food chain”, in Ars Technica:
  • Betas are usually second in command to the reigning alpha, and omegas belong to the lowest caste of the social hierarchy.2018, Laura Campillo Arnaiz, “When the Omega Empath Met the Alpha Doctor: An Analysis of Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics in the Hannibal Fandom”...

All 40 example sentences with beta

Synonyms of beta

Forms of beta

Noun
pluralbetas
pluralBetas
Verb
third-person singular presentbetas
present participlebetaing
past participlebetaed
pastbetaed

Plural of beta: betas

Origin of beta

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βῆτᾰ (bêtă). Doublet of beth.

Borrowed from Hindi बेटा (beṭā).

Words formed from beta

Phrases with beta

62 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with beta

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about beta

What does beta mean?
Beta means the second letter of the Greek alphabet (Β, β), preceded by alpha (Α, α) and followed by gamma, (Γ, γ). In modern Greek it represents the voiced labiodental fricative sound of v found in the English words have and vase.
What is beta in Hindi?
Beta in Hindi is बीटा, बीटा करना. See Beta meaning in Hindi.
How do you use beta in a sentence?
My essays, still written under the influence of Kubla Khan, nearly always got a beta plus.
What part of speech is beta?
Beta can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce beta?
Beta is pronounced /ˈbiːtə/ (UK).
What is the plural of beta?
The plural of beta is betas.

Words near beta in the dictionary

  1. bet the house
  2. bet the jockey, not the horse
  3. bet the ranch
  4. bet up
  5. bet.
  6. beta
  7. Beta Andromedae
  8. beta barrel
  9. beta barrels
  10. beta blockade
  11. beta blockades

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beta (page history and authors); Beta (page history and authors); beta (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); beta (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); beta (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); beta (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); beta (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); beta (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); beta (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); beta (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); beta (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-beta.ogg.

Cite this entry: “beta.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beta. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.