Learn your Greek alphabet

So we’re at “Delta” now (Spring 2021) are you ready for “Epsilon”?

With the WHO’s newest naming convention for COVID Variants of Interest (VOI) and Varients of Concern (VOC) and something you don’t hear too much about, Variant of High Consequence (VOHC) we’re going to hear a lot more Greek letter names in the media.

Here is the current “dance card” for what is out there: SARS-CoV-2 Variant Classifications and Definitions or https://www.who.int/en/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/

While VOCs are getting most of the attention and the alpha, beta, gamma and delta names VOIs are also using up some of the Greek letters like ets, iota, kappa and lambda (hey, what happened to theta?). Only 26 names and we’re burning through them pretty fast.

As a result, we’re likely to become more familiar with the Greek alphabet, so here you go.

Name	Character	Pronunciation
alpha	α	AL-phuh
beta	β	BAY-tuh
gamma	γ	GAMM-muh
delta	δ	DELL-tuh
epsilon	ε	EPP-sih-lonn
zeta	ζ	ZAY-tuh
eta	η	AY-tuh
theta	θ	THAY-tuh
iota	ι	ee-OH-tuh
kappa	κ	CAPP-uh r
lambda	λ	LAMM-duh (What animal is that? It’s a “LAMB — duh”!!)
mu	μ	myoo
nu	ν	noo
xi	ξ	ksee
omicron	ο	OH-mih-kronn
pi	π	piy (Like apple “pie”.)
rho	ρ	roh (Like “row, row, row your boat”.)
(final) sigma	ς	SIGG-muh
sigma	σ	SIGG-muh
tau	τ	tow (like the first syllable of “towel”)
upsilon	υ	OOPS-ih-lonn
phi	φ	fiy (Like “fee, fie, fo, fum”)
chi	χ	kiy
psi	ψ	psiy
omega	ω	oh-MAY-guh