This is a
list of Greek words with derivatives in English. The words are in Greek alphabetic order, with tables for the 24 Greek letters, listing thousands of related English words.
There are considerable differences between the various transliterations used to represent the Greek alphabet in English. The table in the sidebar shows
Rough breathing was represented in some Greek dialects by an [h] while in others, the [h] represented the vowel eta (the origin of the sign is thought to be the left-hand half ( + ) of the letter H) a rough breathing over an initial vowel or diphthong – ? ? ? ? ? ? ? – indicates that the word was pronounced with an initial h, and a smooth breathing – ? ? ? ? ? ? ? – indicates the absence of an h, but this has since disappeared in speech, and Modern Greek omits the breathings. An initial upsilon (?) always had the rough breathing – ? – hence hy is very common at the start of words derived from Greek, but no (or very few) such words start with y.
The letter rho (?) at the start of a word always had the rough breathing – ? – and is transliterated rh. If a rho was geminated within a word, the first ? always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing – ?? – leading to the transiliteration rrh.
