A numeronym is a number-based word. Most commonly, a numeronym is a word where a number is used to form an

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

(albeit not an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

or an

initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

). Pronouncing the letters and numbers may sound similar to the full word, as in " K9" (pronounced "kay-nine") for "

canine Canine may refer to: Zoology and anatomy * a dog-like Canid animal in the subfamily Caninae ** ''Canis'', a genus including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and jackals ** Dog, the domestic dog * Canine tooth, in mammalian oral anatomy People with the surn ...

, relating to

dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. ...

". Alternatively, letters between the first and last letters of a word may be replaced by a number representing the number of letters omitted, such as in "i18n" for "

internationalization In economics, internationalization or internationalisation is the process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization. Internationalization is a crucial strateg ...

" where "18" stands in for the word's middle eighteen letters (" ternationalizatio ). Sometimes the last letter is also counted and omitted. These word shortenings are sometimes called ''alphanumeric acronyms'', ''alphanumeric abbreviations'', or ''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 A system administrator, or sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers. The system administrator seeks to en ...

because his surname was too long to be an account name. By 1985, colleagues who found Jan's name unpronounceable often referred to him verbally as "S12n" (''ess-twelve-en''). The use of such numeronyms became part of DEC corporate culture. 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 The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

) or W3C ( World Wide Web Consortium). Some numeronyms are composed entirely of numbers, such as "

212 Year 212 ( CCXII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Asper and Camilius (or, less frequently, year 965 ''Ab urbe condita ...

" for "

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

er", "

4-1-1 4-1-1 is a telephone number for local directory assistance in Canada and the United States. Until the early 1980s, 4-1-1 and the related 1-1-3 number were free to call in most states. In the United States, the service is common known as “info ...

" for "information", "

9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency nu ...

" for "help", "

101 101 may refer to: * 101 (number), the number * AD 101, a year in the 2nd century AD * 101 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC It may also refer to: Entertainment * ''101'' (album), a live album and documentary by Depeche Mode * "101" (song), ...

" for "basic introduction to a subject", and " 420" for "Cannabis". Words of this type have existed for decades, including those in

10-code Ten-codes, officially known as ten signals, are brevity codes used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly by law enforcement and in Citizens Band (CB) radio transmissions. The police version of ten-codes is officially ...

, 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 Year 187 ( CLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Quintius and Aelianus (or, less frequently, year 940 ''Ab urbe c ...

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. Anne H. Soukhanov, editor of the '' Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary'', gives the original meaning of the term as "a telephone number that spells a word or a name" on a telephone dial/numpad.

Examples

Where words have multiple meanings, abbreviations such as these are almost always used to refer to their computing sense; for example, ''G11n'' for "globalization" refers to software preparedness for global distribution, and not the social trend of globalization. In some cases, the use of appropriate case makes it easier to distinguish between letters such as uppercase "I" (eye) and lowercase "l" (el). * 143 – I love you *

– slang for "murder", based on section 187 of the California Penal Code. * 520 – I love you (one of many numeronyms used in Chinese Internet Slang) *

8′46″ 8 minutes 46 seconds (8:46) is a symbol of police brutality that originated from the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Derek Chauvin, a police officer, knelt on Floyd's neck, asphyxiating him. The ...

– The length of time associated with the murder of George Floyd (May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis). * E15 – The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland *

g11n In computing, internationalization and localization ( American) or internationalisation and localisation (British English), often abbreviated i18n and L10n, are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional peculiarities an ...

– globalisation / globalization * i14y –

interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader defi ...

a11y Computer accessibility (also known as accessible computing) refers to the accessibility of a computer system to all people, regardless of disability type or severity of impairment. The term ''accessibility'' is most often used in reference to spe ...

– accessibility * m12n – modularisation / modularization *p13n – personalization *s5n – shorten *h7k – hyperlink *l10n – localisation *i18n –

*a16z –

Andreessen Horowitz Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Andreessen ...

*64 –

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourt ...

*K8s –

Kubernetes Kubernetes (, commonly stylized as K8s) is an open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, scaling, and management. Google originally designed Kubernetes, but the Cloud Native Computing Foundation now maintai ...

* sk8r – Skater *o11y – Observability *c12s –

Communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

*c14n –

Canonicalization In computer science, canonicalization (sometimes standardization or normalization) is a process for converting data that has more than one possible representation into a "standard", "normal", or canonical form. This can be done to compare diff ...

References

{{Reflist Numbers Abbreviations

Examples

See also

References