whole numbers


The set of familiar numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on) sometimes called natural numbers or counting numbers. When they are called counting numbers, zero is not included.

Notes for whole numbers

The whole numbers are also called the positive integers (or the nonnegative integers, if zero is included).

Words Nearby whole numbers

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use whole numbers in a sentence

  • Meyer had prepared me for the coming storm, when Beethoven should hear of leaving out three whole numbers of the first act.

  • whole numbers of musical reviews were devoted to the study and discussion of his art in all its ramifications.

    Musical Portraits | Paul Rosenfeld
  • Construct a subtracting magic square with the first sixteen whole numbers that shall be "associated" by subtraction.

    Amusements in Mathematics | Henry Ernest Dudeney
  • Every reader will have perceived that certain whole numbers are evidently impossible.

    Amusements in Mathematics | Henry Ernest Dudeney
  • My remarks throughout must be understood to apply to whole numbers, because fractional soldiers are not of much use in war.

    Amusements in Mathematics | Henry Ernest Dudeney