A ghost town in California, United States (USA). / A village in Illinois, United States. / A village in Michigan, United States. / A city and village in Minnesota, United States

The name of the first letter of the Greek alphabet (Α, α), followed by beta. In the Latin alphabet it is the predecessor to A. / Latin alpha: the Latin letter Ɑ (minuscule: ɑ).

Designates the first in an order of precedence. / (of person, object or action) Exhibiting characteristics of the alpha male/female archetype.

plural of alpha

A secondary structure found in many proteins, in which the amino acids are arranged in a coil, or helix, with almost no free space on the inside and all side chains being pointed towards the outside

(physics) A positively charged nucleus of a helium-4 atom (consisting of two protons and two neutrons), emitted as a consequence of radioactivity; α-particle

(zoology, ethology) the dominant female animal in a pack / (by extension) a self-assured and strong woman; an alphette

The person in a group who displays the most experience or knowledge, especially with respect to technology.

(computing, technology) An early version of a program or application, typically unstable, but useful to show what the product will do. Sometimes this stage is referred to as a preview version. Sometimes no more features are added after this release, but bug fixes continue. This release comes after a pre-alpha version and before a beta version. As opposed to a beta version an alpha version is usually not feature complete.

(software, testing) A process where a software application approaching full functionality is made available to a group of sophisticated users.