different between number vs wordage

English

Alternative forms

• nummer (dialectal)
• numbre (obsolete)

Etymology 1

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 divide”). Compare Saterland Frisian Nummer, Nuumer, West Frisian nûmer, Dutch nummer (“number”), German Nummer (“number”), Danish nummer (“number”), Swedish nummer (“number”), Icelandic númer (“number”). Replaced Middle English ?etæl and rime, more at tell, tale and rhyme.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: n?m?b?r, IPA^(key): /?n?mb?/
• (General American) enPR: n?m?b?r, IPA^(key): /?n?mb?/
• Rhymes: -?mb?(?)
• Hyphenation: num?ber

Noun

number (plural numbers)

1. (countable) An abstract entity used to describe quantity.

2. (countable) A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer.

   Synonyms: scalar, (obsolete) rime

3. (countable, mathematics) An element of one of several sets: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers, complex numbers, and sometimes extensions such as hypercomplex numbers, etc.

4. (Followed by a numeral; used attributively) 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.

5. Quantity.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates

     Number itself importeth not much in armies where the people are of weak courage.

6. A sequence of digits and letters used to register people, automobiles, and various other items.

7. (countable, informal) A telephone number.
   • 2001, E. Forrest Hein, The Ruach Project, Xulon Press, page 86:

     “[...] I wonder if you could get hold of him and have him call me here at Interior. I’m in my office, do you have my number?”

   • 2007, Lindsey Nicole Isham, No Sex in the City: One Virgin's Confessions on Love, Lust, Dating, and Waiting, Kregel Publications, page 111:

     When I agreed to go surfing with him he said, “Great, can I have your number?” Well, I don’t give my number to guys I don’t know.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Marsha's work number is 555-8986.

8. (grammar) Of a word or phrase, the state of being singular, dual or plural, shown by inflection.

   Synonym: numeral

9. (now rare, in the plural) Poetic metres; verses, rhymes.
10. (countable) A performance; especially, a single song or song and dance routine within a larger show.

11. (countable, informal) A person.
    • 1968, Janet Burroway, The dancer from the dance: a novel, Little, Brown, page 40:

      I laughed. "Don't doubt that. She's a saucy little number."

    • 1988, Erica Jong, Serenissima, Dell, page 214:

      "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 [...]"

    • 2005, Denise A. Agnew, Kate Hill & Arianna Hart, By Honor Bound, Ellora's Cave Publishing, page 207:

      He had to focus on the mission, staying alive and getting out, not on the sexy number rubbing up against him.

12. (countable, informal) An item of clothing, particularly a stylish one.
    • 2007, Cesca Martin, Agony Angel: So You Think You've Got Problems..., Troubador Publishing Ltd, page 134:

      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.

    • 2007, Lorelei James, Running with the Devil, Samhain Publishing, Ltd, page 46:

      "I doubt the sexy number you wore earlier tonight fell from the sky."

13. (slang, chiefly US) A marijuana cigarette, or joint; also, a quantity of marijuana bought form a dealer.
    • 2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage 2010, page 12:

      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 […]

14. (dated) An issue of a periodical publication.

    the latest number of a magazine

15. A large amount, in contrast to a smaller amount; numerical preponderance.
    • 1980, May 10, Al King "Braves travel to New England with reputation", The Indiana Gazette

      Despite last week's woes, the Braves still sport numbers that would make Christie Brinkley blush.

16. (informal, always indefinite) A large amount of damage

    • (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

number (third-person singular simple present numbers, present participle numbering, simple past and past participle numbered)

1. (transitive) To label (items) with numbers; to assign numbers to (items).

   Number the baskets so that we can find them easily.

2. (intransitive) To total or count; to amount to.

   I don’t know how many books are in the library, but they must number in the thousands.

See also

• (grammatical numbers): singular, dual, trial, quadral, paucal, plural

References

• number on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Derived terms

• number among

Translations

See also

• Wiktionary’s Appendix of numbers

Etymology 2

From numb + -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: n?m'?, IPA^(key): /?n?m?/
• (US): enPR: n?m'?r, IPA^(key): /?n?m?/
• Hyphenation: num?ber

Adjective

number

1. comparative form of numb: more numb

Anagrams

• numbre, renumb

Estonian

Etymology

From German Nummer. The added -b- is analoguous to kamber and klamber.

Noun

number (genitive numbri, partitive numbrit)

1. number

Declension

Middle English

Noun

number

1. Alternative form of nombre

Papiamentu

Etymology

From English number.

An analogy of the Papiamentu word nòmber "name".

Noun

number

1. number

English

Etymology

word +? -age

Noun

wordage (countable and uncountable, plural wordages)

1. Words collectively.
2. The excessive use of words; verbiage.
   • 1829 April, "Article VIII" (review of The Cause of Dry Rot Discovered), The Westminster Review, p. 417 (Google books view):

     But the plates are good, and, in reality, sufficient without all the wordage.

   • 1941, Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, London: Methuen, Chapter 10, p. 122,^[1]

     Here, I think, we must class the portmanteau-wordage of James Joyce, in which the use of verbal and syllabic association is carried so far that its power of unconscious persuasion is lost and the reader’s response is diverted by a conscious ecstasy of enigma-hunting, like a pig rooting for truffles.

3. The number of words used in a text.
   • 1951 July 2, "MacArthur Hearing: Curtain," Time (retrieved 21 April 2015):

     The official transcript totaled 2,045,000 words—more than twice the wordage of the Bible.

   • 2002, Julian Barnes, “Flaubert’s Death-Masks” in Something to Declare, New York: Knopf,

     A work of elucidation couched in a lazily dense style; a biography seemingly concerned with externals but in fact spun from inside the biographer like a spider’s thread; a critical study which exceeds in wordage all the major works of its subject put together…

4. The choice of words used; phraseology.
   • 1990 May 15, Jack Curry, "Winfield Case Heads to Arbitrator," New York Times (retrieved 21 April 2015):

     "With the wordage in the contract, we think we have a good case."

Synonyms

• (excessive use of words; verbiage): wordiness
• (number of words): word count
• (choice of words): wording

References

• wordage at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• dogwear, dowager