Stigma (letter) Stigma (letter) Stigma (ϛ) is a ligature of the Greek letters sigma (Σ) and tau (Τ), which was used in writing Greek between the Middle Ages and the 19th century. It is also used as a numeral symbol for the number 6. In this unrelated function, it is a continuation of the old letter digamma (originally Ϝ, cursive form ), which had served as a numeral since antiquity and was conflated with the σ-τ ligature in the minuscule handwriting of the Middle Ages. The στ ligature (, ) was one of many ligature forms that came into widespread use as
Greek letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering and u. Sometimes font variants of Greek letters are used as distinct symbols in mathematics, in particular for ε/ϵ and π/ϖ. The archaic letter digamma (Ϝ/ϝ/ϛ) is sometimes used. The Bayer designation naming scheme for stars typically uses the first Greek letter, α, for the brightest star in each constellation, and runs through the alphabet before switching to Latin letters. In mathematical finance, the Greeks are the variables denoted by Greek letters used to describe the risk of certain investments. The Greek letter forms used in mathematics are often different from those used in Greek-language text: they are designed to