Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The 19th letter of the Greek alphabet.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In ichthyology, the toadfish, Batrachus tau.
  • noun In entomology: A beetle.
  • noun A phalænid moth.
  • noun A fly.
  • noun In heraldry, same as tau-cross.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The nineteenth letter (Τ, τ) of the Greek alphabet, equivalent to English t.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The common American toadfish; -- so called from a marking resembling the Greek letter tau (τ).
  • noun See Illust. 6, of Cross.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The name of the letter T/τ in the Greek, Hebrew and ancient Semitic alphabets, being the nineteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, the twentieth letter of Old and Ancient Greek.
  • noun A Τ-shaped sign or structure; a St. Anthony's cross, sometimes considered as a sacred symbol.
  • noun physics, dated A tau meson, now usually known as a kaon.
  • noun physics An unstable heavy lepton, which decays into a muon or electron; a tauon.
  • noun biology A type of protein used to stabilise microtubules.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek, of Phoenician origin; see tww in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ταῦ (tau).

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Examples

  • Alzheimer's is marked by deposits of beta-amyloid protein in the brain, and knotty protein structures in the nerves themselves called tau tangles.

    The Age News Headlines 2010

  • Alzheimer's is marked by deposits of beta-amyloid protein in the brain, and knotty protein structures in the nerves themselves called tau tangles.

    The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines 2010

  • Among the possible advances in early detection are chemical tracers, some of which tag clumps of a sticky substance in the brain called amyloid, and others that mark amyloid and a protein called tau—both thought to contribute to the disease.

    Push to Detect Alzheimer's Earlier Shirley S. Wang 2011

  • Eventually another small protein, called tau, also starts to crystallize in this way to form "tangles."

    Connecting the Pieces of the Alzheimer's Puzzle Matt Ridley 2011

  • The crucial protein, called a tau protein, is a normal part of the brain and central nervous system.

    New Hope For Early Diagnosis And Treatment Of Alzheimer’s | Impact Lab 2009

  • The first one, the electron, was discovered in 1897, and the last one, this thing called the tau neutrino, in the year 2000.

    Brian Cox on CERN's supercollider Brian Cox 2008

  • We discovered that these fibers are made of a protein called tau and then we discovered that we could pull these fibers apart.

    CNN Transcript Jul 31, 2008 2008

  • The first one, the electron, was discovered in 1897, and the last one, this thing called the tau neutrino, in the year 2000.

    Brian Cox on CERN's supercollider Brian Cox 2008

  • The first one, the electron, was discovered in 1897, and the last one, this thing called the tau neutrino, in the year 2000.

    Brian Cox on CERN's supercollider Brian Cox 2008

  • This process, called tau phosphorylation, enables the microtubules to unbind and then bind again, allowing brain cells to connect and reconnect with other brain cells.

    Die Trying Child, Lee 1998

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