Nu (/ˈnjuː/ ⓘ; uppercase Ν, lowercase ν; Greek: vι ni, [ni]) is the thirteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar nasal [n]. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 50. It is derived from the Phoenician letter nun (𐤍). Its Latin equivalent is N, though the lowercase (ν {\displaystyle \nu }) resembles the Roman lowercase v.

The name of the letter is νῦ (, [nŷː]) in Ancient Greek, while in Modern Greek it is νι (ni, [ni]).

Letters that arose from nu include N in the Latin script and En (Н) in Cyrillic.

Symbology

Bust of Nikos Kazantzakis with the traditional Greek nu

The lower-case letter ν is used as a symbol in many academic fields. Uppercase nu is not used, because it appears identical to Latin N.

Unicode

Encodings of Greek Nu and Coptic Ni.

  • U+039DΝ GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU (Ν)
  • U+03BDν GREEK SMALL LETTER NU (ν) (\nu in TeX)
  • U+2C9AⲚ COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER NI
  • U+2C9Bⲛ COPTIC SMALL LETTER NI
  • U+1D6B4𝚴 MATHEMATICAL BOLD CAPITAL NU
  • U+1D6CE𝛎 MATHEMATICAL BOLD SMALL NU
  • U+1D6EE𝛮 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC CAPITAL NU
  • U+1D708𝜈 MATHEMATICAL ITALIC SMALL NU
  • U+1D728𝜨 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL NU
  • U+1D742𝝂 MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALIC SMALL NU
  • U+1D762𝝢 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD CAPITAL NU
  • U+1D77C𝝼 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD SMALL NU
  • U+1D79C𝞜 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC CAPITAL NU
  • U+1D7B6𝞶 MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF BOLD ITALIC SMALL NU

See also