Meaning & use
number
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Meanings
nouncountablemathematics
A word or symbol used to count, measure or show amount, such as 7 or seven.
Grammar: Countable: a number, three numbers.
Patterns
- a number between X and Y
Choose a number between one and ten.
Seven is my lucky number.
The answer is a negative number.
nounsingular
An amount or quantity of people or things.
Grammar: A number of takes a plural verb: a number of people are late.
Patterns
- a number of things
- the number of things
A large number of students applied.
The number of visitors has doubled.
A number of problems were found.
nouncountable
A figure used to identify something, such as a phone number or house number.
Grammar: Often follows a noun: phone number, room number.
Patterns
- the number of something
Can I have your phone number?
Their house number is 42.
He wrote the flight number on the ticket.
nouncountableinformal
A single song, dance or performance in a show.
Grammar: Informal, in the entertainment world.
Patterns
- a musical number
The band closed with a slow number.
The show's best number was a tap dance.
She wore a red number to the party.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To give something a number, or to come to a certain total.
Grammar: Number the pages; the crowd numbered in thousands.
Patterns
- number something
- number in the hundreds
Please number each page at the top.
The protesters numbered over ten thousand.
Her fans number in the millions.
Word forms
| plural | numbers |
|---|---|
| third person singular | numbers |
| past tense | numbered |
| past participle | numbered |
| -ing form | numbering |
Common combinations
- a large number of
- A large number of people attended.
- phone number
- I forgot her phone number.
- odd number
- Seven is an odd number.
- in large numbers
- Birds arrive in large numbers in spring.
- round number
- Let's say about 100, a round number.
- number one
- The song went to number one.
Synonyms and how they differ
- figure
- Figure often means a number in statistics or money, while number is the general word.
- numeral
- A numeral is the symbol that stands for a number, such as 5.
- amount
- Amount is used with uncountable things, but number is used with countable things.
- quantity
- Quantity is more formal and can be used with both kinds of nouns.
Word family
- numerical adjective
- relating to numbers
- numeral noun
- a symbol for a number
- numerous adjective
- many
- numeracy noun
- ability to work with numbers
- innumerable adjective
- too many to count
Commonly confused: number or amount?
number vs amount
Use number with countable nouns (a number of cars) and amount with uncountable ones (an amount of money).
Practice
A large ______ of people have signed the petition.
Choose one answer.
A large number of is used with countable plural nouns such as people. Amount is for uncountable things, and deal does not fit this pattern.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “number”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.