# What does "Pi" mean?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pi-mean/204608>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 30, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pi-mean/204608 "2003-09-30T02:18:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gypsymoth3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pi-mean/204608/1 "2003-09-30T02:18:58Z")

</div>

yeah, i know it equals 22/7 and is used to find the diameter and area of circles, but why do they call it “pi”? does it have some foreign meaning (kinda like “sophomore” means “wise fool”)? or was it named after someone? or was someone just soo hungry trying to analyze their round pastry that they left off the e?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pi-mean/204608/2 "2003-09-30T02:52:02Z")

</div>

It’s the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-pi-mean/204608/3 "2003-09-30T03:13:22Z")

</div>

[This duplicate](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=214379) has a lot of replies, so let’s go with that one.