A Glossary of College Greek Letters

For Students & Parents

Updated January 31, 2019

Greek-lettered organizations in North America date back to 1776, when students at William and Mary College founded a secret society called Phi Beta Kappa. Since then, dozens of groups have followed suit by drawing their names from the Greek alphabet, sometimes choosing letters that represented their mottoes (also in Greek). The fraternal organizations of the eighteenth century started out as secret literary societies, but today, people most commonly associate Greek-letter groups with the social fraternities and sororities on college campuses.

Many collegiate honors societies and educational groups chose Greek letters for their names, as well.

The letters below are shown in their capitalized forms and are listed in alphabetical order, according to the modern Greek alphabet.

Modern Greek Alphabet

Greek Letter	Name
Α	Alpha
Β	Beta
Γ	Gamma
Δ	Delta
Ε	Epsilon
Ζ	Zeta
Η	Eta
Θ	Theta
Ι	Iota
Κ	Kappa
Λ	Lambda
Μ	Mu
Ν	Nu
Ξ	Xi
Ο	Omicron
Π	Pi
Ρ	Rho
Σ	Sigma
Τ	Tau
Υ	Upsilon
Φ	Phi
Χ	Chi
Ψ	Psi
Ω	Omega