4
  • Dozen = 12
  • Score = 20
  • Gross = 144
  • Grand = 1000
  • Myriad = 10,000
  • Googol = 10¹⁰⁰
  • Googolplex = 10Googol

Indian English: Lakh = 100,000 and Crore = 10,000,000.

Ignoring all the numbers already listed on Wikipedia (thousands, millions, billions, etc.; milliards, billiards, etc.; one, two, three, four, etc.), what other English words are there for specific positive integers?

2 Answers2

1

A couple means 2, though it sometimes means "roughly two." A pair and a duo are exactly 2.

A trio is 3.

A half-dozen, unsurprisingly, is 6.

A baker's dozen is 13.

In sports, especially in England, century is used for 100 of various things, most often 100 runs in a cricket innings. Outside of sports it usually means 100 years.

Joel Anair
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  • Uou mention duo and trio. Why don't you also mention quartet, quintet, etc? Are there contexts where trio is acceptable while quartet is not? – Armen Ծիրունյան Nov 09 '14 at 18:00
  • @ArmenԾիրունյան quartet and up (to me) suggest musical ensembles specifically, while duo and trio suggest two and three people/things more generally (a "dynamic duo" springs to mind). This may just be my bias -- I'm certainly not an authority. Good question! – Joel Anair Nov 09 '14 at 18:11
  • Keeping the comic book analogies going...they are the Fantastic Four, rather than Quartet. – Oldcat Nov 10 '14 at 19:53
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The following are all slang, but I don't think your question specifically precluded slang, so:

Within my shady entourage we often use "large" (usually with no article to modify numbers greater than 1) or "a grand" to mean 1000 units of whichever currency we're currently trying to launder, but "a grand" can also mean 1000 of anything (make no mistake (as I did ONCE), there's a HUGE difference between "a grand of Uzis" and "a grand's worth of Uzis!")

We also use "nickel"* (for 5 [dollars]), "dime" (for 10 [dollars]), and "key"/"ki" (for 1000 [grams]) when referencing the quantity of certain products that we sell.

*(All seriousness aside,"double-nickel(s)" can also mean the number "55", I think)

Papa Poule
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  • The only time I've heard double-nickel was in reference to Jordan's 55 points during his 1995 return to basketball. But now briefly googling it seems like it is sometimes used to refer to the 55mph speed limit too. –  Nov 10 '14 at 12:50
  • Funny you should mention those 2 references (MJ & mph)! My trips back & forth to Chapel Hill on I-85 started getting much slower in 1974 when the Feds imposed the "double nickel" speed limit because of the '73 oil crisis/embargo. Unfortunately I missed seeing MJ in action down there by 5 years, but I did get to see some great ones play (Tommy LaGarde/Walter Davis/Mitch Kupchak/Phil Ford/et al). Getting to witness David Thompson when State was in town was also pretty awesome (we changed the ending our "fight song" from "Go to hell Duke" to "Go to hell State" during his reign)! (Sorry, TMI) – Papa Poule Nov 10 '14 at 14:42