Meaning of number In English

• 0 (a sign or symbol representing) a unit that forms part of the system of counting and calculating:

  • 25, 300, and a billion are all numbers.

  • She's very good with numbers (= good at adding, subtracting, etc.).

  • They live at number 34 Orchard Street.

  • Please write your credit card number on this form.

  • What's our flight number?

  • I gave him my number.

• 1 an amount or total:

  • The number of people killed in traffic accidents fell last month.

  • There has been an increasing number of cases of the disease.

  • A small number of children are educated at home.

  • A large number of invitations has been sent.

  • Letters of complaint were surprisingly few in number (= there were not many of them).

  • Small numbers of children are educated at home.

  • Large numbers of invitations were sent.

  • Newspapers are produced in vast numbers.

  • I decided not to go, for a number of reasons.

  • On the trip, one of our number fell ill.

• 2 a particular copy of a magazine:

  • Do you have last week's number of the New Yorker?

  • He's got all the back numbers (= previous copies) of the magazine.

  • She was wearing a stylish Dior number.

  • He's a real sexy number, don't you think?

  • Sing one of those romantic numbers.

  • He tried the usual/that old number about how his wife didn't understand him.

• 3 to give something a number in a series and usually to write this number on it:

  • All the folders have been carefully numbered and filed away.

  • Number the pages from one to ten.

• 4 If people or things number a particular amount, there are this many of them:

  • After the hurricane the homeless numbered over 200,000.

• 5 a unit or its symbol that forms part of a system of counting and calculating, and that represents an amount or position in a series:

  • You can write numbers in words, such as six, seven, and eight, or with symbols, such as 6, 7, and 8.

  • Please write down your Social Security number.

  • We’re up to 10 – who has the next number?

• 6 an amount or total:

  • [ C ] A large number of tickets were sold almost immediately.

  • [ C ] Large numbers of people (= A lot of people) crowded the streets.

  • [ U ] Quite a number of (= Many) cases of the flu have been reported already.

  • [ U ] There were a number of causes for the accident.

  • [ U ] He’d already heard any number of excuses.

• 7 the forms of words, esp. nouns, pronouns, and verbs, that show whether they are singular or plural

• 8 a song, dance, or other part in a performance:

  • The last number she sang was a beautiful, slow ballad.

• 9 to give a different number to each of two or more things, esp. in a particular order:

  • The software automatically numbers the footnotes.

• 10 to be (a total):

  • The crowd numbered over 100,000.

• 11 a set of numbers that marks a particular person or thing as separate from others of the same type:

  • account/invoice/order number Include your account number and the name of the fund in which you want to invest.

  • contact/telephone/mobile number Please leave a contact number.

  • a credit card/registration/identification number

• 12 an amount of people or things:

  • the number of sth The number of employees taking legal action over work-related disease is increasing.

  • a growing/increasing/declining number Regulators are seeing a growing number of stock frauds directed at small investors.

  • the maximum/minimum/total number The total number of people in employment has increased by more than 234,000 (16.1%).

  • a large/record number

  • a small/limited number

• 13 several things, reasons, people, etc.:

  • There are a number of factors currently influencing stock-price fluctuations.

• 14 the information in a company's accounts that shows its financial results and position:

  • Citigroup described the supermarket's numbers as strong and solid.

  • customer/passenger/staff numbers Passenger numbers increased 11.3% in the period.

• 15 to achieve the expected results, expressed in numbers:

  • The company culture drove employees to make the numbers without much concern for how they did it.

• 16 to examine the details of a particular financial situation, usually in order to make a decision about it:

  • She ran the numbers on her mortgage and realized that refinancing was the right thing to do.

• 17 to give something a number in a series:

  • Documents filed under the Act must be numbered.

• 18 if people or things number 100, 1 million, etc., there are that number of them:

  • At its peak, the workforce involved in building the new airport terminal numbered 50,000.

  • number in the hundreds/thousands/millions, etc. Their fan base numbers in the tens of millions worldwide.