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Alpha (uppercase Α, lowercase α; Greek: Άλφα Álpha) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 1.

It was derived from the Phoenician and Hebrew letter aleph - an ox or leader.

Letters that arose from alpha include the Latin A and the Cyrillic letter А.

In English, the noun "alpha" is used as a synonym for "beginning", or "first" (in a series), reflecting its Greek roots.

In Ancient Greek, alpha was pronounced [a] and could be either phonemically long ([a:]) or short ([a]). Where there is ambiguity, long and short alpha are sometimes written with a macron and breve today: Ᾱᾱ, Ᾰᾰ.

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