Numeronym

Key takeaways

Numeronym belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Numeronym to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Numeronym from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A numeronym is a word, usually an abbreviation, composed partially or wholly of numerals. The term can be used to describe several different number-based constructs, but it most commonly refers to a contraction in which all letters between the first and last of a word are replaced with the number of omitted letters (for example, "i18n" for "internationalization"). According to Anne H. Soukhanov, editor of the Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary, it originally referred to phonewords – words spelled by the letters of keys of a telephone pad. A numeronym can also be called an alphanumeric acronym or alphanumeric abbreviation.

Types

Homophones

A number may be substituted into a word where its pronunciation matches that of the omitted letters. For example, "K9" is pronounced "kay-nine", which sounds like "canine" (relating to dogs). Examples of numeronyms based on homophones include:

sk8r: skater B4: before l8r: later; L8R, also sometimes abbreviated as L8ER, is commonly used in chat rooms and other text based communications as a way of saying goodbye. G2G: "good to go", "got to go", or "get together", also found as "GTG". gr8: "great" P2P: "pay-to-play" or "peer-to-peer" F2P: "free-to-play" T2UL/T2YL: "talk to you later", also found as "TTYL". B2B: "business-to-business" B2C: "business-to-consumer" c2c: "City to Coast"

Numerical contractions

Alternatively, letters between the first and last letters of a word may be replaced by the number of letters omitted. For example, the word "internationalization" can be abbreviated by replacing the eighteen middle letters ("nternationalizatio") with "18", leaving "i18n". Sometimes the last letter is also counted and omitted. These word shortenings are sometimes called numerical contractions. According to Tex Texin, the first numeronym of this kind was "S12n", the electronic mail account name given to Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) employee Jan Scherpenhuizen by a system administrator because his surname was too long to be an account name. The use of such numeronyms became part of DEC corporate culture. Examples of numerical contractions:

a11y – accessibility c12s – communications c14n – containerization or canonicalization d14n – decentralization E15 – The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland g11n – globalization i14y – interoperability i18n – internationalization K8s – Kubernetes l10n – localization m12n – modularization o11n – orchestration o11y – observability p13n – personalization

Purely numeric Some numeronyms are composed entirely of numbers, such as "212" for "New Yorker", "4-1-1" for "information", "9-1-1" for "help", "101" for "basic introduction to a subject", and "4-20" for "Cannabis". Words of this type have existed for decades, including those in 10-code, which has been in use since before World War II. Chapter or title numbers of some jurisdictions' statutes have become numeronyms, for example 5150 and 187 from California's penal code. Largely because the production of many American movies and television programs are based in California, usage of these terms has spread beyond its original location and user population. Examples of purely numeric words include:

64 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 69 – 69 (sex position) 86 – slang for the unavailability of an item, or the prohibition of a person, especially in restaurants 88 - Neo-nazi reference to Heil Hitler, as H is the eight letter of the alphabet 143 – I love you 187 – slang for "murder", based on section 187 of the California Penal Code 421 – Fortune 520 – I love you (one of many numeronyms used in Chinese Internet Slang) 8:46 – The length of time associated with the murder of George Floyd (May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis). 2137 – Time of day at which John Paul II died 1312 – ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards)

Repeated letters A number may also denote how many times the character before or after it is repeated. This is typically used to represent a name or phrase in which several consecutive words start with the same letter, as in W3 (World Wide Web) or W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Amazon Web Services uses this in naming some of its popular services such as S3 (Simple Storage Service) and EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute)

SI prefixes

Numeronyms can also make use of SI prefixes, as are commonly used to abbreviate long numbers (e.g. "1k" for 1000 or "1M" for 1000000). Examples of numeronyms using SI prefixes include:

Y2K fashion - "year 2000 fashion" (see also Y2K aesthetic) Y2K problem – Year 2000 problem Y2K38 problem – Year 2038 problem C10k problem – Ten-thousand concurrent connections problem

See also Leet or leetspeak Nominal number -onym

References

External links The dictionary definition of numeronym at Wiktionary

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Numeronym

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Numeronym claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Numeronym before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Numeronym ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Numeronym

In research: Numeronym appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Numeronym in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Numeronym is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Abbreviations, Numbers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Numeronym outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Numeronym in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Numeronym means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Numeronym out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Numeronym in simple terms?

A numeronym is a word, usually an abbreviation, composed partially or wholly of numerals. The term can be used to describe several different number-based constructs, but it most commonly refers to a contraction in which all letters between the first and last of a word are replaced with the number o…

Why does Numeronym matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Numeronym?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Numeronym.