\alpha\beta\gamma
LaTeX Greek Letters
Complete reference for all 24 lowercase and 11 uppercase Greek letters in LaTeX, plus variant forms like \varepsilon and \varphi. All commands work in math mode with the standard amsmath package.
\section{Lowercase Greek}
All 24 lowercase letters
All lowercase Greek letters are available in math mode without any extra packages. Use them inside $...$ or \[...\] delimiters.
Omicron has no dedicated macro — it is identical to the Latin letter o in most fonts.
\section{Uppercase Greek}
Uppercase letters with LaTeX commands
Only 11 uppercase Greek letters have dedicated LaTeX commands — the other 13 are visually identical to their Latin counterparts (A, B, E, Z, H…) and are typed directly.
These uppercase Greek letters are identical to Latin letters — no macro needed:
\section{Variant Forms}
Variant forms — \var...
Several Greek letters have alternate typographic forms accessed with the \var prefix. These are meaningful distinctions in mathematical and scientific writing.
\epsilon\varepsilonPreferred in modern mathematics and physics
\phi\varphi\varphi is common in analysis and number theory
\theta\varthetaCursive-style theta, used in some physics notation
\pi\varpiVariant pi, appears in number theory contexts
\rho\varrhoRounder variant; used to avoid confusion with p
\sigma\varsigmaFinal sigma form (end-of-word position in Greek)
\kappa\varkappaRequires amssymb or amsmath package
\section{Usage in Equations}
Greek letters in physics equations
The code below shows Greek letters in context — Schrödinger's equation, Maxwell's equations, and the Euler-Lagrange equation. Try it in the playground with the button above the code block.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
% Schrödinger equation — \psi, \hbar, \nabla
\[
i\hbar \frac{\partial \psi(\mathbf{r},t)}{\partial t}
= \left[ -\frac{\hbar^2}{2m} \nabla^2 + V(\mathbf{r},t) \right] \psi(\mathbf{r},t)
\]
% Maxwell (Gauss's law) — \varepsilon, \rho, \mu
\[
\nabla \cdot \mathbf{E} = \frac{\rho}{\varepsilon_0}, \qquad
\nabla \times \mathbf{B} = \mu_0 \mathbf{J}
\]
% Euler-Lagrange — \phi, \partial, \mathcal{L}
\[
\frac{\partial \mathcal{L}}{\partial \phi}
- \partial_\mu \frac{\partial \mathcal{L}}{\partial(\partial_\mu \phi)} = 0
\]
% Variant forms side by side
Variants: $\epsilon$ vs $\varepsilon$, \quad
$\phi$ vs $\varphi$, \quad
$\theta$ vs $\vartheta$
\end{document}Quantum mechanics
\psi (wave function), \hbar, \Psi (state vector)
Electromagnetism
\varepsilon_0 (permittivity), \mu_0 (permeability), \omega (angular frequency)
Thermodynamics
\Delta T (temperature change), \Sigma (summation), \eta (efficiency)
Statistics
\mu (mean), \sigma (standard deviation), \lambda (rate), \alpha (significance level)
Geometry
\theta, \phi, \psi (angles), \pi (pi), \Gamma (gamma function)
Linear algebra
\lambda (eigenvalue), \Sigma (covariance matrix), \Delta (discriminant)
Try Greek letters in the playground
Write equations with \alpha, \psi, \Sigma and compile to PDF instantly — no installation required.