🔤 Not about numbers 🔡 A non-number symbol

nonnumeral

7.7

Not written as a number, like 'many' or 'few'

adjective
/ˌnɒnˈnjuːmərəl/

: no numeral

The teacher explained that nonnumeral items like colors and shapes are used in describing patterns.

Examples

These examples can be interpreted as containing DNEs, despite the fact that nonnumeral expressions are disjoined (cf. section 5 above).

Academic text (2006)
In 22b and 23b, entire nonnumeral phrases are disjoined, with the result that the expressions cannot be construed as DNEs, just as in the case of the disjunctive phrases in examples 19-21.

Academic text (2006)
Example 23c is even more compelling, since in it the word twice is disjoined with the entire nonnumeral phrase three times and hence must be understood as of the same syntactic type as the latter.

Academic text (2006)
The report included many nonnumeral factors that influenced the study, such as opinions and experiences.
In mathematics, concepts like geometric shapes are often described using nonnumeral terms.

Synonyms

nonquantitative

vsnonnumeral

7.9

Uses words or ideas rather than numbers

refers to items not represented using digits or simple symbols

Antonyms

numeral

4 3.5

Relating to numbers or number systems

How Numerical

statistical

Specialized

153 4.1

quantitative

62 5.9

numeric

9 4.6

figureless

7.5

nonnumeral

7.7

Surface Forms

nonnumeral positive

Morphology

nonnumeral = numeral (transparent) = non + numeral

The meaning is a straightforward negation formed by the productive prefix 'non-' plus the familiar word 'numeral', so learners can derive the meaning.

Etymology

Nonnumeral is built from the prefix non- meaning 'not' and numeral which is related to the simple word number, so it literally means 'not a number' and in grammar it describes words like 'many' or 'few' that show amount without giving a specific number.