the 3rd letter of the Greek alphabet
"When the professor wrote on the board, he circled the gamma to show us its position as the third letter in the Greek alphabet."
a unit of magnetic field strength equal to one-hundred-thousandth of an oersted
"The physicist adjusted the instrument's settings to measure the gamma value before calibrating it against the standard oersted."
Portuguese navigator who led an expedition around the Cape of Good Hope in 1497; he sighted and named Natal on Christmas Day before crossing the Indian Ocean (1469-1524)
"The historical account details how Bartolomeu Dias, known as "gamma" in this specific context to refer to his role leading the 1497 expedition around the Cape of Good Hope and naming Natal on Christmas Day, paved the way for future Indian Ocean voyages."
The third letter of the Greek alphabet (Γ, γ), preceded by beta (Β, β) and followed by delta, (Δ, δ).
"The professor asked us to write out the first three letters of the Greek alphabet, starting from alpha and ending with gamma."
In plain English: Gamma is a unit used to measure how strong a type of invisible radiation is.
"The third and smallest Greek letter is gamma."
Usage: Use gamma to refer specifically to the third letter of the Greek alphabet or to scientific concepts named after it. Do not use this word as a general term for any random letter or sound in English.
Gamma is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek that originally meant the third letter of the alphabet. It is considered a doublet of the word gimel.