| Part of Speech | Definition | |
| Noun Plural | 1. Plural inflection of the noun delta.[Eve - graph theoretic] | |
| Noun Base (delta) | 1. A low triangular area of alluvial deposits where a river divides before entering a larger body of water; "the Mississippi River delta"; "the Nile delta".[Wordnet]. 2. An object shaped like an equilateral triangle.[Wordnet]. 3. The 4th letter of the Greek alphabet.[Wordnet]. 4. A tract of land shaped like the letter delta (/), especially when the land is alluvial and inclosed between two or more mouths of a river; as, the delta of the Ganges, of the Nile, or of the Mississippi.[Websters]. | |
Sources: compiled from various sources, (under license) copyright 2008. | Top | |
Date "DELTAS" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1800. (references) |
Specialty Definition: delta
| Domain | Definition | ||
| Computing | Delta n. 1. [techspeak] A quantitative change, especially a small or incremental one (this use is general in physics and engineering). "I just doubled the speed of my program!" "What was the delta on program size?" "About 30 percent." (He doubled the speed of his program, but increased its size by only 30 percent.) 2. [Unix] A diff, especially a diff stored under the set of version-control tools called SCCS (Source Code Control System) or RCS (Revision Control System). 3. n. A small quantity, but not as small as epsilon. The jargon usage of delta and epsilon stems from the traditional use of these letters in mathematics for very small numerical quantities, particularly in `epsilon-delta' proofs in limit theory (as in the differential calculus). The term delta is often used, once epsilon has been mentioned, to mean a quantity that is slightly bigger than epsilon but still very small. "The cost isn't epsilon, but it's delta" means that the cost isn't totally negligible, but it is nevertheless very small. Common constructions include `within delta of --', `within epsilon of --': that is, `close to' and `even closer to'. Source: Jargon File. | ||
| Administration | 1: (1) An alluvial deposit made of rock particles (sediment and debris) dropped by a stream as it enters a body of water. (2) A plain underlain by an assemblage of sediments that accumulate where a stream flows into a body of standing water where its velocity and transporting power are suddenly reduced. (3) The low, nearly flat, alluvial tract of land deposited at or near the mouth of a river, commonly forming a triangular or fan-shaped plain of considerable area enclosed and crossed by many distributaries of the main river. Originally so named because many deltas are roughly triangular in plan, like the Greek letter delta, with the apex pointing upstream. (references) | 2: The width of the gray region divided by the arithmetic standard deviation of the measurements, is the relative shift expressed in multiples of standard deviations. See relative shift, gray region. (references) | |
| Aerospace | 1: Designator for the letter "D" in the International Phonetic Alphabet. (references) | 2: A fan-shaped area at the mouth of a river formed by deposition of successive layers of sediments brought down from the land and spread out on the bottom of a basin. Where the stream current reaches quiet water, the bulk of the coarser load is dropped and the finer material is carried farther out. Deltas are recognized by nearly horizontal beds, termed bottomset beds, overlain by more steeply inclined and coarser-textured beds called foreset beds. (references) | 3: A roughly triangular area of the mouth of a river composed of river transported sediment. (references) | 4: Boeing-made family of launch vehicles used by NASA. (references) | 5: A usually triangular alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river. (references) |
| Antiquities | Delta. See Aegyptus. (references) | ||
| Building & Civil Engineering | A term used in some countries, equivalent to duty of water when the latter is expressed in water-depth units and refers to irrigation projects under operation. It is stated with reference to the place at which it is measured or reckoned i. e. "delta at farm", "delta at outlet", "head of watercourse, or lateral head", "delta at distributary head", " delta at head of main canal" Source: European Union. (references) | ||
| Business | 1: The expected change in an option's price given a one-unit change in the price of the underlying futures contract or physical commodity. For example, an option with a delta of 0.5 would change $.50 when the underlying commodity moves $1.00. (references) | 2: See Defense Loan and Technical Assistance Program. (references) | |
| Computing | The difference between a partial-select output of a magnetic core in a 1 state, and a partial-select output of the same core in a 0 state. Source: European Union. (references) | ||
| Energy | An alluvial sediment deposit normally formed where a river or stream enters a lake or estuary. Flat land mass of sediment deposit formed at the mouths of streams where they enter larger bodies of water. Sediment deltas are usually triangular in plan view, narrow at the upstream end and relatively wide at the downstream end. The sediment particles deposit because the river velocity and gradient are too low to keep the particles in motion. Active deltas contain diverging multiple channels that continually deposit sediment and migrate back and forth across the delta surface. The sediment particles of the delta deposit are usually well sorted such that the coarser particles (gravel and sand) deposit first at the upstream end, while finer particles (silt and clay) deposit farther downstream. A fan shaped area at the mouth of a river. (references) | ||
| Environment | The fan-shaped alluvial tract formed at the mouth of a river, when it deposits more solid material there than can be removed by tidal or other currents. (references) | ||
| Finance | The factor by which an option price varies in relation to the price of the investment or asset into which it is convertible; the expected change in an option price as a proportion of a small change in the price of the instrument underlying the option. Source: European Union. (references) | ||
| Geological | A fan-shaped deposit that forms where a stream enters a lake or ocean and drops its load of sediment. (references) | ||
| Geology | 1: An alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river or tidal inlet. Deltas occur when a sediment-laden current enters an open body of water, at which point there is a reduction in the velocity of the current, resulting in rapid deposition of the sediment, as at the mouth of a river where the river discharges into the sea or a lake. (references) | 2: (n) A low, nearly flat accumulation of sediment deposited at the mouth of a river or stream, commonly triangular or fan-shaped. (Adj: Deltaic). (references) | 3: 1) Silt deposits, generally triangular in shape, collected at or in a river's mouth. 2) System of channels through an alluvial plain at the mouth of a stream. (references) |
| Hydrologic | An alluvial deposit, often in the shape of the Greek letter "delta", which is formed where a stream drops its debris load on entering a body of quieter water. (references) | ||
| Literature | Delta The island formed at the mouth of a river, which usually assumes a triangular form, like the Greek letter () called delta; as the delta of the Nile, the delta of the Danube, Rhine, Ganges, Indus, Niger, Mississippi, Po, and so on. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. | ||
| Military | Change or difference, e.g., a funding delta. (references) | ||
| Mining | 1: An alluvial fan having its apex at the mouth of a stream. (references) | 2: A body of alluvium, nearly flat and fan-shaped, deposited at or near the mouth of a river or stream where it enters a body of relatively quiet water, usually a sea or lake. (references) | |
| Physics | A difference in temperature. Often used in the context of the difference between the design indoor temperature and the outdoor temperature. (references) | ||
| Public Administration | Triangular or delta-shaped section of the coast where the river meets the sea, characterized by alluvial fertile deposits and water channels. Source: European Union. (references) | ||
| Statistics | A value used in referring to power tables that combines gamma and the sample size. Source: European Union. (references) | ||
| Water | The low, nearly flat tract of land at or near the mouth of a river, resulting from the accumulation of sediment supplied by the river in such quantities that it is not removed by tides, waves, or currents. Commonly a triangular or fan-shaped plain. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | Top | ||
Common Expressions: delta
| Expressions | Definition | ||
| Alpha Delta Chi | Alpha Delta Chi is a national Christian sorority founded at UCLA in 1925. Its brother fraternity is considered to be Alpha Gamma Omega. (references) | ||
| Alpha Delta Gamma | Alpha Delta Gamma had its beginning with four students at the Lake Shore Campus of Loyola University of Chicago in 1924. Francis Patrick Canary, John Joseph Dwyer, William S. Hallisey and James Collins O'Brien, Jr., first conceived the idea of founding a new unique fraternity during a ride on Chicago's L (The elevated railway). The Founding Four realized the need for an organization quite different from those existing on their campus. (references) | ||
| Alpha Delta Phi | Alpha Delta Phi (ΑΔΦ) is a Greek-letter fraternity in the United States and Canada. Nowadays the name refers to both an all-male fraternity that was founded in 1832 by Samuel Eells at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York and a "society" that broke off from the fraternity in 1992 which permits co-educated chapters. The Fraternity and the Society both come out of Eells's vision for a "literary society," although Alpha Delta Phi's original academic focus is preserved to varying degrees by individual chapters. (references) | ||
| Alpha Delta Pi | Alpha Delta Pi (ΑΔΠ) was founded May 15 1851 at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia making it the first sorority. The Executive office for this sorority is located on Ponce de Leon Drive in Atlanta, Georgia. (references) | ||
| Alpha Gamma Delta | Alpha Gamma Delta (ΑΓΔ) is a sorority founded at Syracuse University on May 30 1904. (references) | ||
| Alpha Kappa Delta | Alpha Kappa Delta ("AKD") is an international sociology honor society. (references) | ||
| Alpha Kappa Delta Phi | Alpha Kappa Delta Phi (αΚΔΦ) is a national Asian-interest sorority founded at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall of 1990. The purpose of this sorority is to promote sisterhood, scholarship, leadership, and Asian awareness in the University and community while encouraging the expression of the individual. It currently has 39 chapters and is the largest national Asian-interest sorority. The sorority's colors are purple and white, its symbol is the hourglass, and its stone is a diamond. The organization is dedicated to the fight against Breast Cancer through its charitable donations and support of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. (references) | ||
| Alpha Lambda Delta | Alpha Lambda Delta is an honor society for students who have achieved a 3.5 GPA or higher in their first semester of college. (references) | ||
| Alpha Phi Delta | Alpha Phi Delta was originally a social society, founded by Nicholas Frunzi, but has become a male fraternity. The Alpha Phi Delta has an Italian American heritage, but the organization has members from many various religious and ethnic backgrounds. (references) | ||
| Alpha Xi Delta | Alpha Xi Delta (ΑΞΔ)was founded in 1893 by ten women at Lombard College, Galesburg, Illinois, who shared a vision of an organization dedicated to the personal growth of women. Alpha Xi Delta is one of the oldest women's fraternities as well as one of the ten founding fraternities of the National Panhellenic Conference. The National Panhellenic Creed, which is still read aloud today at every NPC meeting across the country, was even written by an Alpha Xi Delta. Alpha Xi Delta maintains chapters at 110 institutions ranging from the University of Washington to Florida International University. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | Top | ||
Specialty Expressions: delta
| Expressions | Domain | Definition | |
| Cuspate delta | Geography | Tooth-shaped delta in which a single dominant river builds the delta forward into a lake or sea, while vigorous wave action spreads the deltaic deposits uniformly on either side of the river mouth to form two curving beaches, each concave toward the water. Source: European Union. (references) | |
| Delta () | Administration | The amount that the distribution of measurements for a survey unit is shifted to the right of the distribution of measurements of the reference area. (references) | |
| Delta class | Aerospace | Payloads weighing approximately 2,000 to 2,500 pounds (900 to 1,100 kilograms). (references) | |
| Delta connection | Electrical Engineering | A winding connection so arranged that the phase-windings of a three-phase transformer, or reactor, or the windings for the same rated voltage of single-phase transformers, or reactors, associated in a three-phase bank, are connected in series to form a closed circuit. Source: European Union. (references) | |
| Delta conversion | Computing | Delta conversion delta reduction. Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.. | |
| Delta Force | Military & Defense | One of the US Federal Government's counter-terrorist groups. Source: European Union. (references) | |
| Delta II rocket | Aerospace | The Delta II is the latest generation of Delta medium-launch vehicle. It was used to launch the ACE spacecraft, among others. (references) | |
| Delta iron | Metallurgy | Allotrope of iron with a body-centered cubic lattice, stable between c. 1 400 oC and the melting point of iron (TNC57E). Source: European Union. (references) | |
| Delta iron | Mining | The polymorphic form of iron stable between 1,403 degrees F (762 degrees C) and the melting point (about 1,532 degrees F or 833 degrees C). The space lattice is the same as that of alpha iron and different from that ofgamma iron. (references) | |
| Delta loan | Business | See Defense Loan and Technical Assistance Program. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | Top | ||
Abbreviations & Acronyms: delta
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | ||||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field | |
| DELTA | Danish | Det teknologiske fremskridt i undervisningens tjeneste i Europa | Education, Engineering & Technology | |
| DELTA | Dutch | Dutch Education Learning at Top-level Abroad | Public Administration, Education | |
| DELTA | English | Detailed Labor and Time Analysis | Economics | |
| DELTA | French | Développement de l'apprentissage en Europe par l'emploi des technologies avancées | Education, Engineering & Technology | |
| DELTA | Italian | Sviluppo dell'istruzione in Europa attraverso progressi tecnologici | Education, Engineering & Technology | |
| DELTA 4 | English | Definition and design of an open defendable distributed computer system architecture | N/A | |
| DELCO | English | DELTA central office | N/A | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | Top | |||
