Meaning & use
even number
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Meaning
nouncountable
A whole number that can be split into two equal whole parts, so that dividing it by two leaves nothing left over.
Grammar: Usually takes an or the: 8 is an even number; plural is even numbers.
Patterns
- an even number of things
- add two even numbers
Ten is an even number because you can split it into two groups of five.
If you add two even numbers, the answer is always an even number.
The teacher asked us to circle every even number on the page.
Word forms
| plural | even numbers |
|---|
Common combinations
- an even number of
- We need an even number of players to make two equal teams.
- add an even number
- If you add an even number to 7, the result stays odd.
- pick an even number
- Pick an even number between one and twenty.
- divisible by two
- Any even number is divisible by two.
- consecutive even numbers
- Four and six are consecutive even numbers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- even
- Used alone as an adjective or noun-modifier, it is shorter and fine in speech, but 'even number' is clearer when 'even' could also mean level or equal.
- multiple of two
- This is more formal and mathematical, and stresses the dividing idea rather than the odd-or-even pairing.
Opposites
Word family
- even adjective
- divisible by two with nothing left over
- evenness noun
- the quality of being even, as in a number
- odd number noun
- a whole number that leaves one when divided by two
Commonly confused: even number or prime number?
even number vs prime number
A prime number has only two factors, one and itself. Two is the only even prime, so most even numbers are not prime.
Practice
Which of these is an even number?
Choose one answer.
42 divides by two with no remainder, so it is even. The other numbers all leave a remainder of one.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “even number”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.