common multiple


nounMathematics.
  1. a number that is a multiple of all the numbers of a given set.

Origin of common multiple

1
First recorded in 1885–90

Words Nearby common multiple

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use common multiple in a sentence

  • If you’ve ever had to buy hot dogs for a cookout, you might have found yourself solving a math problem involving least common multiples.

  • For the vast constituencies vote merely along the line of the least common multiple of their mob minds.

    The New Germany | George Young
  • Somehow or other a well-ordered monastery represents the Least common multiple of nearly all pleasant houses.

    None Other Gods | Robert Hugh Benson
  • We must break wholes up into fractions, and then seek their common multiple.

    The Last Harvest | John Burroughs
  • As these two numbers, contain no common factor, their least common multiple is their product , which is the number sought.

  • He could not grasp the least common multiple of the two sides.

    The Necromancers | Robert Hugh Benson

British Dictionary definitions for common multiple

common multiple

noun
  1. an integer or polynomial that is a multiple of each integer or polynomial in a group: 20 is a common multiple of 2, 4, 5, 10

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for common multiple

common multiple

  1. A number divisible by each of two or more numbers without a remainder. For example, 12 is a common multiple of 2, 3, 4, and 6.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.