Editing Micro- (section)

{{Short description|Metric system unit prefix}}
{{Other uses|Micro (disambiguation){{!}}Micro}}
{{Wiktionary|micro-}}
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2022|cs1-dates=y}}
'''''Micro''''' ([[Greek letter]] '''μ''', [[Mu (letter)|mu]], non-[[Italic type|italic]]) is a [[metric prefix|unit prefix]] in the [[metric system]] denoting a factor of one [[millionth]] (10<sup>−6</sup>).<ref name="Gold">{{SIbrochure8th}}</ref> It comes from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] word {{lang|grc|μικρός}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|mikrós}}), meaning "small".<ref>"MICR," Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/MICR. Accessed 10/13/2024.</ref>

It is the only [[International System of Units|SI]] prefix which uses a character not from the [[Latin alphabet]]. In [[Unicode]], the symbol is represented by {{unichar|03BC}} or the legacy symbol {{unichar|00B5}}.

When [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] characters are not available, the letter "u" is sometimes used instead of "μ". The prefix "mc" is also commonly used; for example, "mcg" denotes a microgram.<ref name="ISMP_2021"/>