number
[ˈnʌ̟mbɚ]
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.62 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An element of one of several sets: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers, complex numbers, and sometimes extensions such as hypercomplex numbers, etc.
Countable
noun
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A sequence of digits and letters used to register people, automobiles, and various other items.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Of a word or phrase, the state of being singular, dual or plural, shown by inflection.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Any number of people can be reading from a given repository at a time."
- "There are, in addition to all the red socks, a number that don’t suit me either."
- "The number of malnourished children has decreased."
- "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."
- "Number itself importeth not much in armies where the people are of weak courage."
- "Zero, one, −1, 2.5, and pi are all numbers."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *nem- Proto-Italic *nomezos Latin numerus Anglo-Norman noumbrebor. Middle English nombre English number Inherited 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 distribute, to give, to take”). Compare Saterland Frisian Nummer, Nuumer, West Frisian nûmer, Dutch nummer (“number”), German Nummer (“number”), Danish nummer (“number”), Swedish nummer (“number”), Icelandic númer (“number”). Displaced Middle English ȝetæl and rime; more at tell, tale and rhyme. Distantly related (via Proto-Indo-European) to obsolete English nim (“to take, seize”) and its Germanic cognates (e.g. German nehmen), hence also to numb.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: [ˈnʌ̟mbɚ]
- British English: [ˈnʌmbə]
Usage
Inflected Forms
numbers (plural)
nummer (alternative, dialectal)
numbre (alternative, obsolete)
numbers (present, singular)
numbering (participle, present)
numbered (participle, past)
numbered (past)