pi

See also: Appendix:Variations of "pi"

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Page categories

Translingual

Symbol

pi

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Pali.

English

Ancient Greek alphabet

← omicron		→ rho
Π π Ancient Greek: πεῖ
Wikipedia article on pi

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek πεῖ (peî), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *pay- (“mouth”). Doublet of pe. Its mathematical use apparently stems from its use as the first letter in περιφέρεια (periphéreia, “periphery; circumference”) and was first cited in 1706 in the Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos by William Jones.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophone: pie

Noun

pi (countable and uncountable, plural pis)

2. The 16th letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the seventeenth in Old Greek.
4. (mathematics) An irrational and transcendental constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a Euclidean circle to its diameter; approximately 3.14159265358979323846264338327950; usually written π.

Synonyms

• (irrational constant): Archimedes' constant, Ludolphian number, Ludolph's constant, Ludolph's number

Derived terms

• pi bond
• pi font
• pi-heptomino
• pi meson
• pi-minus
• pi-plus
• pi-system
• pith

Translations

letter of Greek alphabet

Arabic: بِي m (bī), پِي m (pī) Asturian: pi (ast) Catalan: pi (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 派 (zh) (pài) Dutch: pi (nl) m or f Esperanto: pio (eo) Finnish: pii (fi) French: pi (fr) m Galician: pi (gl) m German: Pi (de) n Greek: πι (el) n (pi) Ancient: πεῖ n (peî), πῖ n (pî) Gujarati: પાઇ (pāi) Hebrew: פאי / פַּי (he) f (pay) Hindi: पाइ (hi) m (pāi) Hungarian: pí (hu) Icelandic: pí n Interlingua: pi Irish: pí f Italian: pi greco (it) m Japanese: パイ (ja) (pai) Korean: 파이 (ko) (pai) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: pî (ku) f Latvian: pī m Macedonian: пи (pi) Malay: pi (ms) Persian: پی (fa) (pi) Polish: pi (pl) n Portuguese: pi (pt) m Romanian: pi (ro) m Russian: пи (ru) n (pi) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: пи̑ n Roman: pȋ (sh) n Sindhi: پاءِ Slovak: pí (sk) Slovene: pí (sl) m Spanish: pi (es) f Swedish: pi (sv) n Turkish: pi (tr)

irrational mathematical constant

Arabic: ط (ar) m (ṭāʔ), بَاي (ar) m (bāi) Chinese: Cantonese: 圓周率 / 圆周率 (jyun4 zau1 leot6-2) Mandarin: 圓周率 / 圆周率 (zh) (yuānzhōulǜ), 派 (zh) (pài) Czech: pí (cs) Dutch: pi (nl) m or f Finnish: pii (fi) French: pi (fr) m German: Pi (de) n, Kreiszahl (de) f Greek: πι (el) (pi) Gujarati: પાઇ (pāi) Hindi: पाइ (hi) m (pāi) Hungarian: pí (hu) Icelandic: pí n Interlingua: pi Irish: pí f Italian: pi greco (it) m Japanese: パイ (ja) (pai), 円周率 (ja) (enshū ritsu) Kannada: ಪೈ (pai) Korean: 파이 (ko) (pai), 원주율 (ko) (wonjuyul) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: pî (ku) f Limburgish: pie (li), pi (li) Macedonian: пи (pi) Maori: pae Persian: پی (fa) (pi) Polish: pi (pl) n Portuguese: pi (pt) m Romanian: pi (ro) m Russian: пи (ru) n (pi) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: пи̑ n Roman: pȋ (sh) n Sindhi: پاءِ Slovak: pí (sk) Slovene: pí (sl) m Spanish: pi (es) f Swedish: pi (sv) n Turkish: pi (tr), pi sayısı (tr) Welsh: pi (cy)

metal type that has been spilled

Italian: pasticcio (it) m, confusione (it) f

See also

• (Greek-script letter names) alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega

Etymology 2

Unclear. Possibly from the Greek letter (see Etymology 1) as a common example of non-alphabetic character, possibly from pica (“type size”) (see Etymology 3), possibly from pie referring to its mixed nature or pied (“checkered, multicoloured”).

Noun

pi (countable and uncountable, plural pis)

2. (letterpress typography) Metal type that has been spilled, mixed together, or disordered.

   Alternative form: pie

Verb

pi (third-person singular simple present pies, present participle piing, simple past and past participle pied)

1. (letterpress typography) To spill or mix printing type.

   Alternative form: pie

Adjective

pi (not comparable)

1. (typography) Not part of the usual font character set; especially, non-Roman type or symbols as opposed to standard alphanumeric Roman type.

   In computing, pi characters may be entered with special key combinations.

Translations

not part of the usual font

Finnish: erikois- (fi)

Etymology 3

Abbreviations.

Noun

pi

1. (typography) pica (conventionally, 12 points = 1 pica, 6 picas = 1 inch).
2. Piaster.

Adjective

pi

2. Pious.
   • 1927, Magdalen King-Hall, I Think I Remember: Being the Random Recollections of Sir Wickham Woolicomb, an Ordinary English Snob and Gentleman:

     Our Major was "Cherub" Cheeseman, noted for his foul language. I am afraid he lost a tidy little legacy that he was expecting from his aunt, the Dowager Lady Shuttlecock (a very "pi" old lady), through this same habit of his.

   • 1972, Anya Seton, Green Darkness, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     “Those are very 'pi' sentiments. Was a preacher in Staffordshire— I was raised chapel, though've tried to forget it—he talked that way... redemption and the lot.”

   • 1994, Roger Gard, Jane Austen's Novels: The Art of Clarity, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 101:

     In Sense and Sensibility, as even you might agree, there's at least the danger of a rather pi moral framework clamping down on the spontaneous fun and leaving the sisters to survive - a bit drearily - on the periphery of a mean world.

Derived terms

• pi-jaw

Related terms

• cicero
• pica stick

See also

• pi sai (etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

• IP, Ip

Abinomn

Noun

pi

1. (anatomy) gall bladder

Pronoun

pi

1. you (more than two)