mantissa
/mænˈtɪsə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.80 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The part of a common logarithm after the decimal point, the fractional part of a logarithm.
noun
The significand; that part of a floating-point number or number in scientific notation that contains its significant digits.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin mantissa, mantīsa, of unknown origin (said by Festus to be a loanword from Etruscan, but it may actually be from Celtic, possibly through Etruscan mediation). Coincidentally, proparoxytone Greek μάντισσα (mántissa) means "female foreteller", as in χαρτομάντισσα (chartomántissa, “cartomancer”) or χειρομάντισσα (cheiromántissa, “chiromancer”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: mantissa, -