Greek Capital Letter Alpha Α

The Greek Capital Letter Alpha character (Α) is a standard HTML entity defined in the HTML specification. In HTML source code, it can be written using the named entity reference Α, the decimal numeric character reference Α, or the hexadecimal numeric reference Α. The character is assigned Unicode code point U+0391 in the Universal Character Set.

Greek capital alpha is visually identical to the Latin capital letter A. Because of this, it is rarely used in mathematical or scientific notation — the Latin A is used instead. It is included in the HTML entity set for completeness of the Greek alphabet and for rendering actual Greek text.

Greek letter entities are indispensable for scientific papers, engineering documentation, statistical analyses, and mathematical content published on the web. From physics equations using alpha and omega to statistical formulas featuring sigma and mu, these entities allow content authors to include Greek characters reliably without requiring specialized fonts or complex Unicode input methods on the keyboard.

When deciding how to encode the Greek Capital Letter Alpha character in your HTML documents, the named entity Α is generally the most readable choice for developers reviewing or maintaining source code. The decimal form Α and hexadecimal form Α are equally valid alternatives that work in contexts where named entities may not be supported, or when generating HTML output programmatically from server-side code. All three representations produce identical visual output in every modern web browser.

Use the capital alpha entity when rendering Greek-language text, displaying the complete Greek alphabet, or in educational content about the Greek writing system. In mathematical notation, the Latin A is typically used instead of Greek capital alpha due to their identical appearance.