numbers

views updated May 17 2018

numbers Numbers is the name of the fourth book of the Bible, relating the experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness after Moses led them out of Egypt. It is named in English from the book's accounts of a census; the title in Hebrew means ‘in the wilderness’.
by numbers following simple instructions identified by numbers or as if identified by numbers; the allusion is to painting by numbers, a painting kit with a canvas on which numbers have been marked to indicate which colour of paint should be applied in which place.
numbers game the use or manipulation of statistics or figures, especially in support of an argument (often derogatory).

See also there is luck in odd numbers, number, there is safety in numbers.

Numbers

views updated May 23 2018

295. Numbers

See also 262. MATHEMATICS .

abacist
a skilied user of the abacus.
acalculia
Psychiatry. an inability to work with figures; a mental block concerning calculation.
arithmancy
a form of divination involving numbers. Also called arithmomancy .
arithmomania
1. an obsession with numbers.
2. a compulsion to count things.
hebdomadism
a belief that the number seven is sacred, as in ancient Baby-Ion.
numerology
a system of occultism based upon numbers. numerologist, n. numerological, adj.

Numbers

views updated May 14 2018

Numbers Fourth book of the Bible and of the Pentateuch. Its describes the Israelites' 40 years of wandering in the desert of the Sinai Peninsula, in search of the Promised Land of Canaan. Interwoven with their story is a collection of religious material, including laws concerning purification rituals and procedures for sacrificing to God.

numbers

views updated May 18 2018

numbers. Term used for self-contained item in a musical or opera (because each piece of this kind is separately numbered in the score). A ‘number opera’ is an opera in which these divisions occur, as opposed to Wagner's later operas, for example, where each act is written continuously without internal divisions or pauses.

Numbers

views updated May 17 2018

NUMBERS

This entry consists of the following articles:

an overview
binary symbolism

Numbers

views updated May 21 2018

Numbers (hidden meanings): see GEMATRIA.