ordinal number

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ordinal number

noun ordinal numbers

  1. A word that expresses the relative position of an item in a sequence. First, second and third are the ordinal numbers corresponding to one, two and three.
  2. A natural number used to denote position in a sequence. In the expression a₃, the "3" is an ordinal number.

    Similar: ordinal, ordinal numeral

  3. Such a number generalised to correspond to any cardinal number (the size of some set); formally, the order type of some well-ordered set of some cardinality a, which represents an equivalence class of well-ordered sets (exactly those of cardinality a) under the equivalence relation "existence of an order-preserving bijection". 1950, Frederick Bagemihl (translator), Erich Kamke, Theory of Sets, Dover (Dover Phoenix), 2006, page 137, For not only do the antinomies a) to e) disappear when we admit as elements of sets only such sets, ordinal numbers, and cardinal numbers as are bounded above by a fixed cardinal number, but we

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Every language

noun generalized kind of number to denote the length of a well-order on a set

日本語順序数 junjosū

noun grammar: word used to denote relative position in a sequence

한국어서수 seosu, 서수사 seosusa
日本語序数詞 josūshi, 序数 josū
中文順序數 /顺序数 shùnxùshù, 序數 /序数 xùshù, 序數詞 /序数词 xùshùcí
हिन्दीकर्मवाचक संख्या karmvācak saṅkhyā
Portuguêsnúmero ordinal
Françaisnombre ordinal (pl. nombres ordinaux)
DeutschOrdnungszahl, Ordnungszahlwort, Ordinale, Ordinalzahl
Ελληνικάτακτικό αριθμητικό taktikó arithmitikó
Русскийпоря́дковое числи́тельное porjádkovoje čislítelʹnoje

noun arithmetic: number used to denote position in a sequence

中文序數 /序数 xùshù
Русскийпоря́дковый но́мер porjádkovyj nómer, но́мер nómer

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MLA

"ordinal number." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ordinal%20number. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

ordinal number. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ordinal%20number

Chicago

"ordinal number." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ordinal%20number.

BibTeX
@misc{ordinal_number_2026,
  title = {ordinal number},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ordinal%20number},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}