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natural number

American

noun

a positive integer or zero.

natural number British

noun

any of the numbers 0,1,2,3,4,… that can be used to count the members of a set; the non-negative integers

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

natural number Scientific

A positive integer.

Etymology

Origin of natural number

First recorded in 1755–65

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

While Mbeumo, who signed from French club Troyes in 2019, is not a natural number nine, he is viewed as being versatile, dynamic, powerful and fast, and Amorim wants flexible players.

From BBC • Jun. 3, 2025

Kai Havertz, who is playing the centre-forward role despite not being a natural number nine, is their top scorer in the league on seven.

From BBC • Jan. 13, 2025

“Fifty-four is the natural number for me,” Wagner said Monday.

From Seattle Times • May 22, 2023

Yet even this seemingly simple concept poses a challenge: there is no largest natural number.

From Scientific American • Aug. 16, 2021

In those flowers, which have many petals, the lowest series of the petals remains unchanged in respect to number; hence the natural number of the petals is easily discovered.

From The Botanic Garden. Part II. Containing the Loves of the Plants. a Poem. With Philosophical Notes. by Darwin, Erasmus

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023