Alpha

n.

1.

The first letter in the Greek alphabet, answering to A, and hence used to denote the beginning. In am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. - Rev. xxii. 13.

Noun	1.	alpha - the 1st letter of the Greek alphabet
	2.	alpha - the beginning of a series or sequence; "the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end"--Revelations
Adj.	1.	alpha - first in order of importance; "the alpha male in the group of chimpanzees"; "the alpha star in a constellation is the brightest or main star"
	2.	alpha - early testing stage of a software or hardware product; "alpha version"

1.	(language)	ALPHA - (Or "Input") An extension of ALGOL 60 for the M-20 computer developed by A.P. Ershov at Novosibirsk in 1961. ALPHA includes matrix operations, slices, and complex arithmetic. ["The Alpha Automatic Programming System", A.P. Ershov ed., A-P 1971].
2.		Alpha - 1. A compiler generator written by Andreas Koschinsky and described in his thesis at the Technische Universitaet Berlin. Alpha takes an attribute grammar and uses Bison and Flex to generate a parser, a scanner and an ASE evaluator (Jazayeri and Walter). The documentation is in german.

A, beginning, blast-off, breaking-in, commencement, creation, cutting edge, dawn, dawning, edge, establishment, first, first blush, first glance, first impression, first inning, first lap, first move, first round, first sight, first stage, first step, flying start, foundation, fresh start, gambit, genesis, initial, initiative, institution, jump-off, kick-off, le premier pas, leading edge, new departure, oncoming, onset, opening, opening move, origin, origination, outbreak, outset, outstart, prime, primitiveness, primitivity, running start, send-off, setout, setting in motion, setting-up, square one, start, start-off, starting point, take-off, warming-up