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Glossary

The easiest way to provide a glossary of terms used in the various theorems seemed to be as a pdf file which you can open in this window. If you have arrived here from one of the theorems you may prefer to open the glossary in a fresh window so that you can return to your theorem from here.

There are mathematical glossaries available on-line that are incomparably better than this: cut-the-knot and Pat Ballew's in particular, not to mention encyclopediae such as Mathworld, PlanetMath or Wikipedia and resources such as Numericana. This glossary has one possible advantage in that its entries usually reference one of the theorems of the day in which that entry plays a role.

I have also tried to include mathematical jargon words, such as 'elementary' or 'trivial'; 'formal' or 'rigorous'; 'difficult' or 'hard' which in mathematics take quite subtle and precise meanings. And of course there are the faux amis like 'complex' or 'power' or 'rational', which in mathematics have technical meanings often far from their everyday usage.

Jeff Miller deals admirably with a related issue, the origins of mathematical terminology; and there is a valuable (American English) pronunciation guide by Kent Kromarek. Pronunciations of famous mathematicians' names are given by Khristo N. Boyadzhiev in "Names of prominent European mathematicians and how to pronounce them" (pdf file).

See also: the Greek alphabet, list of acronyms and commonly-used mathematical symbols (but the Wikipedia version is unsurpassed, while an important addendum has been provided by mathwithbaddrawings!)


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