Definitions

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

  • noun The 24th letter of the Greek alphabet.
  • noun The last of a series; the end.
  • noun In cosmology theory, the ratio of the average density of matter in the universe to its critical density.
  • adjective Relating to the end of the chain of carbon atoms that is opposite the carboxyl group in the molecule of a fatty acid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The last letter of the Greek alphabet (Ω, ω); hence, figuratively, the last of anything.

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

  • noun The last letter of the Greek alphabet. See alpha.
  • noun The last; the end; hence, death.
  • noun the beginning and the ending; hence, the chief, the whole.

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

  • noun The twenty-fourth letter of the Classical and the Modern Greek alphabet, and the twenty-eighth letter of the Old and the Ancient Greek alphabet, i.e. the last letter of every Greek alphabet. Uppercase version: Ω; lowercase: ω.
  • noun The end; the final, last or ultimate in a series.

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

  • noun the last (24th) letter of the Greek alphabet
  • noun the ending of a series or sequence

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Greek ō mega, large o (from its being a long vowel in Greek) : ō, the letter o + mega, neuter of megas, large, great; see meg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Ancient Greek μέγα (mega, "large") (omega is a long vowel in Ancient Greek).

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Examples

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  • Ω Chaitin's constant

    January 3, 2009