Micro-

This article is about the SI prefix. For other uses, see Micro (disambiguation).
Look up micro- in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Micro (Greek letter μ, mu, non-italic) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of 10−6 (one millionth).[1] It comes from the Greek word μικρός (mikrós), meaning "small".[2]

It is the only SI prefix which uses a character not from the Latin alphabet. In Unicode, the symbol is represented by U+03BC μ GREEK SMALL LETTER MU or the legacy symbol U+00B5 µ MICRO SIGN. The prefix "mc" is commonly used in healthcare or when the character "μ" is not available; for example, "mcg" commonly denotes a microgram.[3] The letter "u" is sometimes used instead of "μ" when non-Latin characters are not available.

  1. ^ International Bureau of Weights and Measures (2006), The International System of Units (SI) (PDF) (8th ed.), ISBN 92-822-2213-6, archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-06-04, retrieved 2021-12-16
  2. ^ "MICR," Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/MICR. Accessed 10/13/2024.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference ISMP_2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).