sigma

n. the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.

n. the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (upper case Σ, lower case σ or ς).

“The professor wrote the Greek letter sigma on the board to start the lesson.”

“The student struggled to distinguish between the initial and terminal forms of the lowercase sigma when transcribing the ancient manuscript.”

Academic

n. a symbol used in math to show that you should add a group of numbers together.

n. the uppercase Greek letter Σ used as an operator to denote the summation of a sequence or set.

“You use the sigma symbol to find the total sum of all the scores.”

“The formula requires the use of capital sigma to represent the summation of all variables within the defined range.”

Technical

n. a symbol used in statistics to show how much numbers vary from the average.

n. the lowercase Greek letter σ used to represent one standard deviation from the mean in a probability distribution.

“In this chart, one sigma represents the typical spread of the data.”

“The quality control team aimed for a six-sigma process to ensure that defects remained statistically negligible.”

Technical

n. a popular slang term for a person who is successful and cool but prefers to be alone rather than follow a group.

n. a person, typically male, who is perceived as successful, independent, and self-reliant, existing outside traditional social hierarchies.

“He doesn't care about being popular; he's a total sigma.”

“The meme culture surrounding the 'sigma' archetype often parodies the idea of the hyper-focused, solitary achiever.”

Slang · Informal

adj. describing someone who is very cool, successful, or independent.

adj. possessing the qualities of a 'sigma' individual; used to describe actions or people that show independence and high status.

“That was a very sigma move to finish the project all by yourself.”

“The comments section was filled with users calling the athlete's stoic reaction 'pure sigma'.”

Slang · Informal