Word: number Part of Speech: noun 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. Pronunciation: /ˈnʌmbər/, [ˈnʌmbə], [ˈnʌ̟mbɚ], [ˈnɐmbɐ], [ˈnʌmbəɾ] 1. Quantity of countable things. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Any number of people can be reading from a given repository at a time. Example: There are, in addition to all the red socks, a number that don’t suit me either. 2. An abstract entity used to describe quantity. Labels: countable Example: Zero, one, −1, 2.5, and pi are all numbers. 3. A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer. Labels: countable Example: The number 8 is usually made with a single stroke. Example: The former FBI director James Comey has said it did not occur to him that that the numbers 8647 – which he spotted spelled out in seashells on a beach, and posted on social media – could be interpreted as a call to assassinate the president, as many supporters of Donald Trump have claimed. 4. An element of one of several sets: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers, complex numbers, and sometimes extensions such as hypercomplex numbers, etc. Labels: countable Example: The equation e#123;i#92;pi#125;#43;1#61;0 includes the most important numbers: 1, 0, #92;pi, i, and e. 5. 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. Labels: attributive, countable, uncountable Example: Horse number 5 won the race. 6. A sequence of digits and letters used to register people, automobiles, and various other items. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Her passport number is C01X864TN. Example: You can take the number 8 (bus) all the way to the airport. 7. A telephone number. Labels: countable, informal Example: Let's give her a call. Do you have her number handy? Example: I'm definitely interested. Here's my number. Call me back anytime. 8. Of a word or phrase, the state of being singular, dual or plural, shown by inflection. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Adjectives and nouns should agree in gender, number, and case. 9. Poetic metres; verses, rhymes. Labels: archaic, countable, in-plural, uncountable Example: Griefe brought to numbers cannot be ſo fierce, / For, he tames it, that fetters it in verſe. Example: As yet a Child, nor yet a Fool to Fame, / I liſp'd in Numbers, for the Numbers came. 10. A performance; especially, a single song or song and dance routine within a larger show. Labels: countable Example: For his second number, he sang "The Moon Shines Bright". 11. A group of people. Labels: countable, formal, singular, singular-only, uncountable Example: I include myself in their number. Example: As an association, we demonstrate near-Olympic sang-froid. As I write, the gods are smiling upon us, but in the past decade – not to mince words – two of our number have got divorced, one of us checked into rehab, and all of us have had distressful troubles with teenage kids. 12. A person. Labels: countable, informal Example: I laughed. "Don't doubt that. She's a saucy little number." Example: "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 [...]" 13. An outfit, particularly a stylish one. Labels: countable, informal Example: 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. Example: "I doubt the sexy number you wore earlier tonight fell from the sky." 14. A marijuana cigarette, or joint; also, a quantity of marijuana bought from a dealer. Labels: US, countable, slang, uncountable Example: 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. Example: 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 […] 15. An issue of a periodical publication. Labels: countable, dated, uncountable Example: the latest number of a magazine Example: When, in July, 1897, my father brought home the first number of The Railway Magazine, I little thought that, sixty years later, I should still be reading it, without having missed a single number. 16. A large amount, in contrast to a smaller amount; numerical preponderance. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Despite last week's woes, the Braves still sport numbers that would make Christie Brinkley blush. 17. An activity; assignment; job, as in cushy number. Labels: countable, uncountable