What 𝜆 means
In Julia’s prompt, type \itlambda and press Tab.
What does mathematical italic lambda mean?
It is Greek lambda in a mathematical variable style.
Greek lambda descends from Phoenician lamed, a consonant letter; Greek writers adapted that alphabet to write Greek and used lambda for the /l/ sound. Greek alphabetic writing is attested in surviving inscriptions around 740 BCE; the usual account places transmission in or shortly before the 8th century BCE, though a 2018 study argues for transmission in the 11th century BCE.
Unicode encodes mathematical letter styles separately because they can distinguish variables in the same formula. This character is intended for mathematical or technical notation, not for decorating ordinary words.
For mathematical or technical notation, where letter style can distinguish one variable from another.
Part of collections
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsWavelength: the distance occupied by one full wave cycle.
Don't confuse it with
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Related characters
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Questions people ask
2Does Unicode normalization change 𝜆?
Yes. Compatibility normalization (NFKC or NFKD) folds mathematical alphabets to their Greek base letters, so 𝜆 becomes λ and its encoded italic style disappears.
Why does 𝜆 look missing in Julia?
A font mismatch. In Julia’s Unicode input table and interactive prompt, the active browser or prompt font can make some glyphs appear missing or inconsistent.
More like this
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How to type or find 𝜆
- Search it as
- math lambda · italic lambda · unicode lambda · lambda symbol
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𝜆\1D706\itlambda, then press Tab.Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.