Non-numerical words for quantities
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Short description: Words that denote non-numerical quantities
The English language has a number of words that denote specific or approximate quantities that are themselves not numbers.[1] Along with numerals, and special-purpose words like some, any, much, more, every, few, several, and all, they are quantifiers. Quantifiers are a kind of determiner and occur in many constructions with other determiners, like articles: e.g., two dozen or more than a score. Scientific non-numerical quantities are represented as SI units.
List of non-numerical quantities
| Name | Quantity | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Brace | 2 | An old term of venery, meaning means ‘a pair of [some animal, especially birds] caught in the hunt’. Also a measure of length, originally representing a person's outstretched arms. |
| Couple | 2 | A set of two of items of a type |
| Century | 100 | Primarily denotes one hundred years, but occasionally used, especially in the context of sport, to refer to something consisting of one hundred, as in a 100-mile race or 100 points. |
| Dozen | 12 | A collection of twelve things or units from Old French dozaine "a dozen, a number of twelve" in various usages, from doze (12c.) [2] |
| Baker's dozen | 13 | From the notion that a baker would include an extra item in a batch of twelve so as not to be accused of shortchanging a customer |
| Half-dozen | 6 | Six of something |
| Decade | 10 | Primarily denotes ten years, but occasionally refers to ten of something |
| Duo | 2 | In reference to people engaged in an endeavor together, as in musical performance (other words denote three or more people in the same context: trio, quartet, etc.) |
| Grand | 1,000 | Slang for a thousand of some unit of currency, such as dollars or pounds. |
| Gross | 144 | Twelve dozen |
| Score | 20 | Presumably from the practice, in counting sheep or large herds of cattle, of counting orally from one to twenty, and making a score or notch on a stick, before proceeding to count the next twenty.[3][4] A distance of twenty yards in ancient archery and gunnery.[5] |
| Threescore | 60 | Three score (3x20) |
| Large | 1,000 | Slang for one thousand |
| Myriad | 10,000 | Loosely refers to a very large quantity |
| Pair | 2 | Often in reference to complementary units, such as male and female or left and right |
| Trio | 3 | Referring to people working or collaborating especially in musical performance |
| Quartet | 4 | Referring to people working or collaborating especially in musical performance; also: Quintet, Sextet, Septet, Octet |
| Great gross | 1,728 | A dozen gross (12x144) |
| Hat-trick | 3 | The achievement of, a generally positive feat, three times in a game, or another achievement based on the number three [6] |
| Small gross | 120 | Ten dozen (10x12) [7] |
| Great hundred | 120 | Ten dozen (10x12) or six score (6x20), also known as long-hundred or twelfty [8][9] |
| Ton | 100 | One hundred points in the sport of Darts. |
| None, nil, zilch | 0 | Zero |
| Lakh | 100,000 | Indian numbering system: One hundred thousand |
| Crore | 10,000,000 | Indian numbering system: ten million |
| Arab | 1,000,000,000 | Indian numbering system: billion |
| Kharab | 100,000,000,000 | Indian numbering system: hundred billion |
| Nil | 1013 | Indian numbering system: ten trillion |
| Padma | 1015 | Indian numbering system: quadrillion |
| Shankh | 1017 | Indian numbering system: hundred quadrillion |
| Ehab | 25 | Referring to a quantity of 25 |
| Mole | ~602 sextillion | 6.02214076×1023, widely used in chemistry for the amount of substance |
| Quarter-dozen | 3 | Quarter of a dozen(12) which is 3 |
| Quintet | 5 | Referring to 5 |
| Sextet | 6 | Referring to 6 |
| Septet | 7 | Referring to 7 |
| Octet | 8 | Referring to 8 |
| M127 | 170,141,183,460,469,231,731,687,303,715,884,105,727 | Largest prime number by human computation |
| Belphegor's Prime | 1000000000000066600000000000001 | Due to the superstitious significance of the numbers it contains, the palindromic prime 1000000000000066600000000000001 is known as Belphegor's Prime, named after Belphegor, one of the seven princes of Hell |
| Sheldon Cooper’s perfect number | 73 | Sheldon Cooper, one of the main characters on “The Big Bang Theory,” first expressed his affinity for the number 73 during the show's 73rd episode, “The Alien Parasite Hypothesis,” which aired in 2010. “The best number is 73,” Cooper explained in the episode |
| God’s Number | 777 | 7 is the number of completion in the Bible. In popular culture, this is repeated thrice to parallel with 666. |
| Devil’s Number | 666 | Number of the beast in the Bible. |
See also
- Collective numbers
- wiktionary: collective numeral
References
- ↑ "Non-numerical words for quantities ⋆ Annie Non-numerical words" (in en-GB). 2019-11-12. https://www.annemiekdunhof.com/english-grammar-clarifications/non-numerical-words-for-quantities/.
- ↑ "dozen | Origin and meaning of dozen by Online Etymology Dictionary" (in en). https://www.etymonline.com/word/dozen.
- ↑ Conway, John H.; Guy, Richard K. (1996). The Book of Numbers. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-4072-3. ISBN 978-1-4612-8488-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4072-3.
- ↑ "score | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=score.
- ↑ "score - Wiktionary" (in en). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/score.
- ↑ "hat trick | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=hat%20trick.
- ↑ Wright, Carroll Davidson (1910). The New Century Book of Facts: A Handbook of Ready Reference. King-Richardson Company.
- ↑ Wells, David (1986). The Penguin dictionary of curious and interesting numbers. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-026149-4. OCLC 39262447. https://worldcat.org/oclc/39262447.
- ↑ Zupko, Ronald Edward (1968). A dictionary of English weights and measures : from Anglo-Saxon times to the nineteenth century. University of Wisconsin Press. OCLC 898998378. https://worldcat.org/oclc/898998378.
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