Alpha by itself may refer to:

Alpha may also be used in:
  • An adjective to indicate the first or most significant occurrence of something., as in these examples:
    • alpha female or male - the individual in the community to whom the others defer. Humans and their nearest species-relatives, the chimpanzees, show deference to the alpha of the community by ritualized gestures such as bowing, allowing the alpha to walk first in a procession, or standing aside when the alpha challenges.
    • alpha geek - a slang term based on the above, referring to any person considered pre-eminent amongst geeks, such as Linus Torvalds.
    • alpha version or alpha release - the first release of a computer program or other product, likely to be very unstable but useful for demonstrating internally and to select customers.
    • alpha channel - a transparency information layer to supplement the three RGB color layers to make the RGBA color space.
    • H-alpha, an emission line created by Hydrogen atoms.
  • Alpha particles