number
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English number, nombre, numbre, noumbre, from Anglo-Norman noumbre, Old French nombre, from Latin numerus (“number”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to divide”). Compare Saterland Frisian Nummer, Nuumer, West Frisian nûmer, Dutch nummer (“number”), German Nummer (“number”), Danish nummer (“number”), Swedish nummer (“number”), Icelandic númer (“number”). Replaced Middle English ȝetæl and rime, more at tell, tale and rhyme.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: nŭmʹbər, IPA(key): /ˈnʌmbə/
- (General American) enPR: nŭmʹbər, IPA(key): /ˈnʌmbɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌmbə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: num‧ber
Noun
number (plural numbers)
- (countable) An abstract entity used to describe quantity.
- Zero, one, −1, 2.5, and pi are all numbers.
- (countable) A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer.
- (countable, mathematics) An element of one of several sets: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers, complex numbers, and sometimes extensions such as hypercomplex numbers, etc.
- The equation includes the most important numbers: 1, 0, , , and .
- (Followed by a numeral; used attributively) Indicating the position of something in a list or sequence. Abbreviations: No or No., no or no. (in each case, sometimes written with a superscript "o", like Nº or №). The symbol "#" is also used in this manner.
- Horse number 5 won the race.
- Quantity.
- 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:
- From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. […] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.
- 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
- Number itself importeth not much in armies where the people are of weak courage.
- Any number of people can be reading from a given repository at a time.
-
- A sequence of digits and letters used to register people, automobiles, and various other items.
- Her passport number is C01X864TN.
- (countable, informal) A telephone number.
- 2001, E. Forrest Hein, The Ruach Project,, Xulon Press, page 86:
- “[...] I wonder if you could get hold of him and have him call me here at Interior. I’m in my office, do you have my number?”
- 2007, Lindsey Nicole Isham, No Sex in the City: One Virgin's Confessions on Love, Lust, Dating, and Waiting, Kregel Publications, page 111:
- When I agreed to go surfing with him he said, “Great, can I have your number?” Well, I don’t give my number to guys I don’t know.
- 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
- Marsha's work number is 555-8986.
Audio (US) (file)
- Marsha's work number is 555-8986.
-
- (grammar) Of a word or phrase, the state of being singular, dual or plural, shown by inflection.
- Adjectives and nouns should agree in gender, number, and case.
- (now rare, in the plural) Poetic metres; verses, rhymes.
- a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “The triple Foole”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC, page 204:
- Griefe brought to numbers cannot be ſo fierce, / For, he tames it, that fetters it in verſe.
- 1735, [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London; Dublin: Re-printed by George Faulkner, bookseller, […], →OCLC, lines 124–125, page 7:
- As yet a Child, nor yet a Fool to Fame, / I liſp'd in Numbers for the Numbers came.
-
- (countable) A performance; especially, a single song or song and dance routine within a larger show.
- For his second number, he sang "The Moon Shines Bright".
- (countable, informal) A person.
- 1968, Janet Burroway, The dancer from the dance: a novel,, Little, Brown, page 40:
- I laughed. "Don't doubt that. She's a saucy little number."
- 1988, Erica Jong, Serenissima,, Dell, page 214:
- "Signorina Jessica," says the maid, a saucy little number, "your father has gone to his prayers and demands that you come to the synagogue at once [...]"
- 2005, Denise A. Agnew; Kate Hill; Arianna Hart, By Honor Bound,, Ellora's Cave Publishing, page 207:
- He had to focus on the mission, staying alive and getting out, not on the sexy number rubbing up against him.
-
- (countable, informal) An item of clothing, particularly a stylish one.
- 2007, Cesca Martin, Agony Angel: So You Think You've Got Problems...,, Troubador Publishing Ltd, page 134:
- The trouble was I was wearing my backless glittering number from the night before underneath, so unless I could persuade the office it was National Fancy Dress Day I was doomed to sweat profusely in bottle blue.
- 2007, Lorelei James, Running with the Devil, Samhain Publishing, Ltd, page 46:
- "I doubt the sexy number you wore earlier tonight fell from the sky."
-
- (slang, chiefly US) A marijuana cigarette, or joint; also, a quantity of marijuana bought from a dealer.
- 2005, K'wan, Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press (2005), →ISBN, page 1:
- These were the two that Tommy had chosen to collect a debt owed to his family by a dude named Heath who ran numbers out of a grocery store on 131st and Lenox.
- 2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage, published 2010, page 12:
- Back at his place again, Doc rolled a number, put on a late movie, found an old T-shirt, and sat tearing it up into short strips […]
- 2005, K'wan, Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press (2005), →ISBN, page 1:
- (dated) An issue of a periodical publication.
- the latest number of a magazine
- A large amount, in contrast to a smaller amount; numerical preponderance.
- 1980 May 10, Al King, “Braves travel to New England with reputation”, in The Indiana Gazette:
- Despite last week's woes, the Braves still sport numbers that would make Christie Brinkley blush.
-
- (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (informal, always indefinite) A large amount of damage
Derived terms
- cushy number
- do a number on
- double-number
- have someone's number
- hyperbolic number
- Listing number
- make one's number
- number field
- number line
- number one
- number theory
- number two
- number-cruncher
- number-crunching
- numberful
- numberish
- numberless
- numbertaker
- numbery
- numeral
- numeric
- numerical
- single-number
- take a number
- without number
- wrong number
more derived terms (someone are also hyponyms, unsorted)
- 0800 number
- 11 o'clock number
- 800 number
- 900 number
- a number of
- Abbe number
- abbreviated number
- abstract analytic number theory
- abstract number
- abundant number
- additive number theory
- age is just a number
- aggregation number
- aleph number
- algebraic number
- algebraic number field
- algebraic number theory
- algorithmic number theory
- all-figure number
- amicable number
- analytic number theory
- angel number
- apocalyptic number
- atomic number
- automorphic number
- Avogadro's number
- azimuthal quantum number
- back number
- baryon number
- basic reproduction number
- basic reproductive number
- Bates number
- Bell number
- Bernoulli number
- Betti number
- bib number
- bicomplex number
- binary number
- Biot number
- book number
- box number
- broken number
- cake number
- call number
- call someone's number
- carbon number
- Carmichael number
- Carol number
- Catalan number
- cetane number
- chromatic number
- chromosome number
- clique number
- cloud number nine
- collective number
- color by number
- composite number
- computational number theory
- concrete number
- contact number
- control number
- coordination number
- copy number
- copy number polymorphism
- copy number variation
- copy-number variant
- counting number
- covering number
- critical Reynolds number
- crossing number
- Cullen number
- curb number
- Cutter number
- cyclic number
- cyclomatic number
- de Moivre number
- decimal number
- defective number
- deficient number
- Delannoy number
- dial number
- diamond number
- disc number
- distributive number
- domination number
- double number
- dual number
- Dunbar's number
- E number
- edge covering number
- edge number
- electron number
- epsilon number
- Erdos number
- Erdős number
- excessive number
- extended real number system
- f-number
- false number 9
- fax number
- Fermat number
- Fibonacci number
- figurate number
- flight number
- floating-point number
- fractional number
- Fresnel number
- friendly number
- Frobenius number
- Froude number
- get someone's number
- GLIDE number
- Gödel number
- God's number
- Goldbach number
- golden number
- Graham's number
- Greek number
- Grundy number
- Hardy-Ramanujan number
- harmonic number
- Harshad number
- Hartogs number
- have one's number on it
- Heegner number
- Heesch number
- hemiperfect number
- highly composite number
- homogeneous number
- hypercomplex number
- hyperperfect number
- hyperreal number
- ideal number
- illegal number
- independence number
- IP number
- Kaprekar number
- Keith number
- kissing number
- Knudsen number
- Köchel number
- L-number
- Lah number
- Laws number
- Leonardo number
- lepton number
- Leyland number
- line number
- Liouville number
- look for number one
- look out for number one
- lose the number of one's mess
- lot number
- Lucas number
- Ludolphian number
- Ludolph's number
- Lychrel number
- Mach number
- magic number
- magnetic quantum number
- Markov number
- mass number
- matching number
- meandric number
- mesh number
- Messier number
- mixed number
- mobile number
- model number
- Motzkin number
- multiplicative number
- Narayana number
- neutron number
- Newton number
- Niven number
- non-hypotenuse number
- nonhypotenuse number
- nonstandard number
- nothing-up-my-sleeve number
- nucleon number
- nude number
- number 2
- number 2 pencil
- number close
- number cruncher
- number crunching
- number density
- number eight
- number eleven
- number five
- number four
- number game
- number needed to harm
- number nine
- number one with a bullet
- number plate
- number ray
- number sentence
- number seven
- number sign
- number six
- number system
- number ten
- number theoretician
- number theorist
- number three
- number-theoretic
- number-theoretic function
- number-theoretical
- number-theoretically
- oblong number
- occupation number
- octane number
- one's number is up
- orbital quantum number
- oxidation number
- p-adic number
- pancake number
- pentatope number
- perfect number
- perplex number
- personal identification number
- PIN number
- Pisot number
- Pisot-Vijayaraghavan number
- plate number coil
- play number two
- practical number
- preferred number
- premium-rate telephone number
- prime number theorem
- principal quantum number
- private enterprise number
- Proth number
- proton number
- pseudorandom number generator
- public enemy number one
- purely imaginary number
- PV number
- pyramidal number
- quantum number
- quaternary number
- Ramsey number
- random number
- random number generator
- random number god
- Rayo's number
- real number line
- real number system
- rectangular number
- regnal number
- repfigit number
- research octane number
- Reynolds number
- Richardson number
- ringer equivalence number
- round number bias
- Rouse number
- routing number
- RSA number
- Sagan's number
- Schröder number
- Sierpinski number
- sieve number
- silent number
- Skewes' number
- sociable number
- social insurance number
- social security number
- sphenic number
- spin quantum number
- split-complex number
- square number
- Stephanus number
- Stirling number
- Stirling number of the second kind
- Stirling partition number
- student number
- superabundant number
- superior highly composite number
- superparticular number
- surreal number
- tail number
- taxicab number
- tetrahedral number
- tone number
- total base number
- transcendental number
- transcendental number theory
- transfinite number
- trial number
- triangular number
- tricomplex number
- turn a number of shades of red
- turning number
- unique identification number
- unknown number
- Unsupported titles/eq number sign
- Unsupported titles/f double number sign k
- Unsupported titles/hr number sign
- untouchable number
- vanity number
- vehicle identification number
- wave number
- Weber number
- weird number
- what is your phone number
- what number
- what's your phone number
- whole number
- winding number
- Wratten number
- Zeisel number
Descendants
- Tok Pisin: namba
- → Brunei Malay: numbur
- → Burmese: နံပါတ် (nampat)
- → Hindustani: नंबर (nambar) / نمبر (nambar)
- → Japanese: ナンバー (nanbā)
- → Kikuyu: namba
- → Malay: nombor
- Indonesian: nomor
- → Maori: nama
- → Navajo: námboo
- → Papiamentu: number
- → Palauan: lambang
- → Swahili: nambari, namba
- → Yoruba: nọ́ḿbà
Translations
abstract entity used to describe quantity
|
numeral
|
mathematics: number
|
used to show the rank of something in a list or sequence
|
quantity
|
sequence of digits and letters used to register people, automobiles, etc.
informal: telephone number
grammar: state of being singular, dual or plural
|
poetic metres; verses, rhymes.
|
performance
|
informal: item of clothing, particularly a stylish one
Verb
number (third-person singular simple present numbers, present participle numbering, simple past and past participle numbered)
Derived terms
- number among
Translations
label with numbers; assign numbers to
|
to total; to amount to
|
See also
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: nŭm'ə, IPA(key): /ˈnʌmə/
- (US): enPR: nŭm'ər, IPA(key): /ˈnʌmɚ/
Audio (US) (adjective) (file) - Hyphenation: num‧ber
Estonian
Declension
Inflection of number (ÕS type 2/õpik, no gradation)
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | number | numbrid |
accusative | numbri | numbrid |
genitive | numbri | numbrite |
partitive | numbrit | numbreid |
illative | numbrisse | numbritesse numbreisse |
inessive | numbris | numbrites numbreis |
elative | numbrist | numbritest numbreist |
allative | numbrile | numbritele numbreile |
adessive | numbril | numbritel numbreil |
ablative | numbrilt | numbritelt numbreilt |
translative | numbriks | numbriteks numbreiks |
terminative | numbrini | numbriteni |
essive | numbrina | numbritena |
abessive | numbrita | numbriteta |
comitative | numbriga | numbritega |
Middle English
Papiamentu

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