Numeral

A numeral is a symbol that represents a number. It is an arbitrary mark, visually, a mere smudge on a medium (rock, paper, screen) that, although devoid of any inherent, has attached, generally agreed upon, meaning.

A numeral system is an organized way to write and manipulate numeric symbols. The prevalent numeral system today is the Hindu–Arabic numeral system that uses 10 numerals.

A numeral system allows combining of individual numerals to represent numbers larger then the value of the largest numeral, called the positional numeral system.

Numeral system, as a system of numeration, is a mathematical notation for representing numbers (of a given set), using digits and other symbols in a consistent manner. The same sequence of symbols may represent different numbers in different numeral systems.

Today, the written representation of numbers and other related symbols is understood universally, allowing mathematics to exists independently of language.

The choice of a particular symbol used to represent a particular number is arbitrary; an Arabic set of symbols is universally agreed upon, so the standard for written numeric representation came to be the set of symbols we're all familiar with. We could have as well ended up using a drastically different set of symbols; maybe soon, we can set up a simulation to mimic the development of a civilization and witness the other interesting outcomes.

Numeral in linguistics

Numerals are names of/for numbers, acting as adjectives or nouns in a language to represent numbers, especially verbally.

Whether based on the same or a different way of counting (decimal, vigesimal), they are a linguistic, rather than mathematical, concept, and thus distinct from numeral systems in the mathematical sense. Nevertheless, there is an overlap between the concepts of numeral and numeral system, particularly in ancient languages when mathematical notation and ordinary language were not separated.

BTW

Numerology 1. belief in magical mystery tour between numbers and (coinciding) events. 2. pulling legs for a living in a mystical manner.

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeral

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeral_system

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeral_(linguistics)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_digit

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu%E2%80%93Arabic_numeral_system

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Numerals

[1]: The Hindu–Arabic numerals were not completely arbitrary; earlier iterations of symbols did try to convey some meaning, between a numeral and a number, by constructing each numeral to have the same number of angles as the number it represented. The required number of angles does emerge with assistance of strategically placed serifs and straightening of the curves.

• 0 was written as a (middle) dot

• 1, when written in sans-serif font (without the "slab"), has 1 angle

• 2 looked more as a "Z"

• 3 was a 90-degrees left-rotated W

• 4 is written with the upper part closing into a triangle

• 5 as a flattened out 5 with a stalagmite;

• the same for 6, except it features a stalactite instead;

• 7 comes with two extra lines, bottom and middle;

• 8 has squared, digital clock style;

• 9 gets mutilated downstairs: after a steady growth, a stalagmite confuses directions taking a sharp turn right only to replace itself with a stalagmite.