Z - technical definition

  1. Zeta.The sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, written in the English alphabet as Z.
  2. The symbol for impedance. See impedance.
  3. The symbol for Zulu time. See Zulu time.
  4. Zetta sextillion (10 21 ), or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. See ZB.
  5. In mathematics, the third of a set of unknown variables, with x and y being the first two unknowns. See also x, y, and z-axis.
  6. One of the two letters, along with Q, that traditionally did not appear on a telephone dial or keypad.The thought was that Z could be confused with 2 and that Q could be confused with O. Z now appears with W, X, and Y on number 9. Alphanumeric dialing was, and remains, a North American practice. Telephones in most other countries do not sport letters.

See Z in Computer


A mathematical language used for developing the functional specification of a software program. Developed in the late 1970s at Oxford University, IBM's CICS software is specified in Z.



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