Numeral

Pronunciation

• RP enPR: nyoÍžo'mÉ™rÉ™l, IPA: /ˈnjuːməɹəl/
• US enPR: noÍžo'mÉ™rÉ™l, IPA: /ˈnumɝəl/

Origin

From Middle French numeral, from Latin numerālis ("pertaining to a number"), from numerus ("a number").

Full definition of numeral

Noun

1. A symbol that is not a word and represents a number, such as the Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3 and the Roman numerals I, V, X, L.
2. (linguistics) A word or symbol representing a number.The word “fifteen”, the Arabic numeral “15”, and the Roman numeral “XV” are all numerals representing the number fifteen.
• 2002 — Laurie Bauer & Rodney Huddleston, "Lexical word-formation", p1621-1722 in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, p1715We use the term numeral for linguistic expressions and number for meanings. For example, five is a numeral expressing the number "5" - and fifteen hundred and one thousand five hundred are different numerals expressing the same number, "1,500".
3. (card games) A card whose rank is a number (usually including the ace as 1).Jacks, queens, and kings are not numerals.

Synonyms

• (word or symbol representing a number) number

Derived terms

• cardinal numeral
• ordinal numeral
• Arabic numeral
• Roman numeral

Adjective

1. Of or relating to numbers; numerical.
• John LockeA long train of numeral progressions.