The term "kappa" has multiple meanings depending on the context. Here are some of the most common meanings:
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Kappa in Japanese folklore: Kappa is a creature from Japanese folklore that is usually seen as a kami of the water. They are known for their mischievous behavior, which ranges from minor misdemeanors to outright malevolence. They are also obsessed with politeness, and if a person makes a deep bow, the kappa will return the gesture, spilling the water held in the "dish" on its head and rendering it unable to leave the bowing position until the plate is refilled with water from the river in which it lives. If a person refills it, the kappa will serve that person for all eternity).
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Kappa in internet culture: Kappa is an emote used in chats on the streaming video platform Twitch. It is often used to convey sarcasm, irony, or to troll people online. The emote features a black-and-white image of a slightly smirking man and was created by a Twitch user named Josh DeSeno in 2011. DeSeno chose the name "Kappa" for the emoticon because he was a big fan of Japanese culture, and the creature from Japanese folklore was a good fit for the sarcastic tone of the emote.
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Kappa in statistics: Kappa is a statistic used to test interrater reliability, which is the extent to which different raters agree on their judgments. Cohens kappa is a commonly used version of this statistic, and it ranges from -1 to +1, where 0 represents the amount of agreement that can be expected from random chance, and 1 represents perfect agreement between the raters. A negative kappa represents agreement worse than expected, or disagreement.
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Kappa as a letter in the Greek alphabet: Kappa is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet.
In summary, "kappa" can refer to a creature from Japanese folklore, an emote used in chats on Twitch, a statistic used to test interrater reliability, or a letter in the Greek alphabet.
