Princeton's WordNet

1. beta(noun)

   the 2nd letter of the Greek alphabet

2. Beta, genus Beta(adj)

   beets

3. beta(adj)

   second in order of importance

   "the candidate, considered a beta male, was perceived to be unable to lead his party to victory"

4. beta(adj)

   preliminary or testing stage of a software or hardware product

   "a beta version"; "beta software"

Wiktionary

1. beta(Noun)

   The name of the second letter of the Greek alphabet (u0392, u03B2), preceded by alpha (u0391, u03B1) and followed by gamma, (u0393, u03B3). In modern Greek it represents the voiced labiodental fricative sound of v found in the English words have and vase.

2. beta(Noun)

   Used in marking scheme: u03B1, u03B2, u03B3 or u03B1+, u03B1, u03B1-, u03B2 etc.

3. beta(Noun)

   Average sensitivity of a security's price to overall securities market prices.

4. beta(Noun)

   The phase of development after alpha testing and before launch, in which software, while not complete, has been released to potential users for testing.

5. beta(Noun)

   A computer program in such phase; a preliminary version.

6. beta(Noun)

   Information about a route which may aid someone in climbing it.

7. beta(Noun)

   A beta particle or beta ray.

8. beta(Noun)

   A beta fish, of the genus Betta.

9. beta(Noun)

   A beta male.

10. beta(Verb)

    To preliminarily release computer software for initial testing prior to final release.

11. beta(Verb)

    To proofread a text, especially fan fiction.

12. beta(Adjective)

    Identifying a molecular position in an organic chemical compound.

13. beta(Adjective)

    Designates the second in an order of precedence.

14. beta(Adjective)

    Preliminary; prerelease. Refers to an incomplete version of a product released for initial testing.

15. Beta(ProperNoun)

    Betamax.

16. Beta(ProperNoun)

    A scientific caste of people in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Origin: From βῆτα

The New Hacker's Dictionary

1. beta

   1. Mostly working, but still under test; usu. used with “in”: in beta. In the Real World, hardware or software systems often go through two stages of release testing: Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house?). Beta releases are generally made to a group of lucky (or unlucky) trusted customers. 2. Anything that is new and experimental. “His girlfriend is in beta” means that he is still testing for compatibility and reserving judgment. 3. Flaky; dubious; suspect (since beta software is notoriously buggy).Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected (or self-selected) customers and users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. Alpha Test was the unit, module, or component test phase; Beta Test was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design, and the D test was the C test repeated after the model had been in production a while.

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