decimal fraction

[ des-uh-muhl frak-shuhn, des-muhl ]

nounArithmetic.

a fraction whose denominator is some power of 10, usually indicated by a decimal point placed before the numerator, as 0.4 = 4/10; 0.126 = 126/1000.

Origin of decimal fraction

First recorded in 1650–60

Compare common fraction, nonterminating decimal, terminating decimal.

Words Nearby decimal fraction

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

How to use decimal fraction in a sentence

You get an endless decimal fraction for quotient when your division does not work out evenly.
Creditors; Pariah | August Strindberg
Expressed as a vulgar fraction it is 2/3; but as a decimal fraction it is .6666 ad infinitum.
The Hidden Power | Thomas Troward
We do all this consciously, in full statistical knowledge to a decimal fraction.
Impressions And Comments | Havelock Ellis
He was an engineer and a soldier, and his La Disme was the first separate treatise on the decimal fraction.
A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II) | Augustus De Morgan
Can the same words mean both a common fraction and a decimal fraction?
The Psychology of Arithmetic | Edward L. Thorndike

British Dictionary definitions for decimal fraction

decimal fraction

noun

another name for decimal (def. 1)

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 decimal fraction

decimal fraction

A decimal having no digits to the left of the decimal point except zero, such as 0.2 or 0.00354.

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