Code Designations for Greek Characters in Gene Symbol Field in MEDLINE®
Codes for Greek characters appear in the Gene Symbol element on a small number of MEDLINE records. Gene Symbol is the abbreviated gene name on citations processed from about 1991 to 1995. This field is not in the PubMed Citation display, but appears on the MEDLINE and XML displays.
The following was originally printed in the 1990 September-October issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin.
For Greek letters, tag the begining of text with & and the end of text with ;
| Symbol | Greek Letter | Type |
|---|---|---|
| a | lower case alpha | &agr; |
| A | upper case alpha | &Agr; |
| b | lower case beta | &bgr; |
| B | upper case beta | &Bgr; |
| g | lower case gamma | &ggr; |
| G | upper case gamma | &Ggr; |
| d | lower case delta | &dgr; |
| D | upper case delta | &Dgr; |
| e | lower case epsilon | &egr; |
| E | upper case epsilon | &Egr; |
| z | lower case zeta | &zgr; |
| Z | upper case zeta | &Zgr; |
| h | lower case eta | &eegr; |
| H | upper case eta | &EEgr; |
| q | lower case theta | &thgr; |
| Q | upper case theta | &THgr; |
| i | lower case iota | &igr; |
| I | upper case iota | &Igr; |
| k | lower case kappa | &kgr; |
| K | upper case kappa | &Kgr; |
| l | lower case lambda | &lgr; |
| L | upper case lambda | &Lgr; |
| m | lower case mu | &mgr; |
| M | upper case mu | &Mgr; |
| n | lower case nu | &ngr; |
| N | upper case nu | &Ngr; |
| x | lower case xi | &xgr; |
| X | upper case xi | &Xgr; |
| o | lower case omicron | &ogr; |
| O | upper case omicron | &Ogr; |
| p | lower case pi | &pgr; |
| P | upper case pi | &Pgr; |
| r | lower case rho | &rgr; |
| R | upper case rho | &Rgr; |
| s | lower case sigma | &sgr; |
| S | upper case sigma | &Sgr; |
| s | final lower case sigma | &sfgr; |
| t | lower case tau | &tgr; |
| T | upper case tau | &Tgr; |
| u | lower case upsolin | &ugr; |
| U | upper case upsolin | &Ugr; |
| f | lower case phi | &phgr; |
| F | upper case phi | &PHgr; |
| c | lower case chi | &khgr; |
| C | upper case chi | &KHgr; |
| y | lower case psi | &psgr; |
| Y | upper case psi | &PSgr; |
| w | lower case omega | &ohgr; |
| W | upper case omega | &OHgr; |
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Last Reviewed: May 24, 2017