Home UK English numeral

Meaning of numeral in English:

numeral

Pronunciation /?nju?m(?)r(?)l/

Translate numeral into Spanish

noun

  • 1A figure, symbol, or group of figures or symbols denoting a number.

    ‘Merz began to utilise the Fibonacci formula of mathematical progression within his works, transmitting the concept visually through the use of the numerals and the figure of a spiral.’
    • ‘Ankit Fadia, the teenaged computer security expert, says that the best passwords are the ones that use both upper case and lower case letters, besides numerals and symbols.’
    • ‘The best known symbols are simple numerals: 0 through 9, which originated in India in the ancient Brahmi script.’
    • ‘They consist of numerals and symbols that are pictographic or quasi-pictographic.’
    • ‘A numeral is a symbol used to represent a number.’
    • ‘This invention was the decimal system of numerals - nine digits and a zero.’
    • ‘She was given the choice of one with a brown face with gilt numerals, or a black face with white figures and she chose the latter.’
    • ‘We may choose to interpret these voltages as binary numerals and the voltage changes as syntactic operations, but a computer does not interpret its operations as syntactic or any other way.’
    • ‘The numeral or numerals following the first two letters indicate maximum carbon content of the alloy.’
    • ‘But there is also a misconception that the European numerals are actually Arabic or that this is a change for the better or at least that it does not matter.’
    • ‘Participants were required to name, add or multiply Arabic or Mandarin numerals and to respond in English or Chinese.’
    • ‘How does the counter generate the correct permutation of the binary numerals?’
    • ‘The hosts are indicated at the top, and separate colonies of each host are indicated by roman numerals.’
    • ‘Linkage groups are designated by roman numerals and X for the sex chromosome.’
    • ‘Alternative transcription initiation sites are designated by roman numerals.’
    • ‘The Arabic numerals have been used in all written works for centuries.’
    • ‘Would this be easier if we just used Arabic numerals?’
    • ‘Regardless of where zero came from, the numerals we use today are called Arabic numerals.’
    • ‘One of the important sources of information which we have about Indian numerals comes from al-Biruni.’
    • ‘Roman numerals indicate major types followed by letters indicating minor variants, usually a single nucleotide difference.’
    number, integer, figure, digit
    View synonyms
    1. 1.1A word expressing a number.
      ‘He can make himself understood, given a few nouns, pronouns, verbs and numerals, without troubling himself in the slightest about accidence.’
      • ‘After having worked out a hard core system of rules for analysing numerals, definite articles, and indefinite articles, we give a thorough study of the French singular definite article le.’
      • ‘In all of these studies, there was a developmental trend in children's ability to produce conventional numerals as representations of quantity.’
      • ‘The suffix for numerically abbreviated ordinal numerals isn't always th in English, Becky.’
      • ‘Rather, numerals are general terms, like dog or red.’
      • ‘Once unitized, the noun can take a range of quantifying expressions, including numerals.’
      • ‘So we have a precedent for numerals also having a less definite quantificational aura.’
      • ‘Well, I heard it again today on NPR: the noun troops with a cardinal numeral.’

adjective

  • Of or denoting a number.

    ‘There are various scales of values, for example in some groups numeral cards 2-10 score 1 point each; jacks, queens and kings 2 points; aces 3 points; and twos 4 points each.’
    • ‘In summary, this study found that, even with stringent controls for other variables associated with reading, recognition of letter / numeral orientation errors made unique contributions to reading.’
    • ‘It would be nice if scholars would investigate a greater diversity of languages and systems before drawing conclusions about links between numeral structure and math learning.’
    • ‘There are numeral cards from 1 to 9 in the three suits ben, suo and wan, and three odd cards, and the complete pack contains four identical copies of each card.’
    • ‘As can easily be seen, adding numeral hieroglyphs is easy.’
    • ‘After the ace of trumps follow the King, Queen and numeral cards.’
    • ‘Each player picks up the 8 card pile and sorts them in to suit and numeral order.’
    • ‘How to read and write Roman numerals; Roman numeral fractions; arithmetic problems; and resources for other numeral systems.’
    • ‘The Brahmi numerals came from an earlier alphabetic numeral system, possibly due to Panini.’
    • ‘This is the practice of cipherization found in all numeral systems around the world.’
    • ‘‘I am afraid of pain in childbirth’ became a ‘Fear’ statement, with a numeral rating assigned to represent its intensity.’
    • ‘The numeral cards 1 to 10 have a capture value that is equal to the rank of the card (for example: tens have a capture value of 10, sixes a capture value of 6, and so on).’
    • ‘In El Tresillo, as in many of the oldest card games, the numeral cards in the round suits (cups and coins) rank in the reverse order from the numeral cards in the long suits (swords and batons).’
    • ‘To identify the cards while playing, it may help to notice that on the numeral cards, the swords are mostly curved whereas the batons are all straight.’
    • ‘The activation of the MEZ is signaled by the flying of the international numeral pennant 5 from a Makah whale hunt vessel.’
    • ‘If you play a numeral card whose value is equal to the sum of the values of some cards on the floor, then your card captures that group of cards.’
    • ‘As usual in games of this family, among the numeral cards in cups and coins, lower numbers beat higher numbers.’
    • ‘In this game kings, queens and jacks are worth half a point each, and the numeral cards are worth their face value.’
    • ‘As far as learning about the tarot, hermeticism, sacred geometry, numeral symbolism etc. these are mostly left to our own study.’
    • ‘Liber abaci was not the first book written in Europe to describe the new numeral system.’

Origin

Late Middle English (as an adjective): from late Latin numeralis, adjective from Latin numerus ‘a number’ (see number).