denominator

American  

[dih-nom-uh-ney-ter] / dɪˈnɒm əˌneɪ tər /

noun

denominators plural

1. Arithmetic. that term of a fraction, usually written under the line, that indicates the number of equal parts into which the unit is divided; divisor.

2. something shared or held in common; standard.

3. Archaic. a person or thing that denominates.

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denominator British  

/ dɪˈnɒmɪˌneɪtə /

noun

1. the divisor of a fraction, as 8 in 7/ 8 Compare numerator

2. archaic a person or thing that denominates or designates

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denominator Scientific  

/ dĭ-nŏm′ə-nā′tər /

1. The number below or to the right of the line in a fraction, indicating the number of equal parts into which one whole is divided. For example, in the fraction 2/7, 7 is the denominator.

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denominator Cultural  

1. In mathematics, the number that appears on the bottom of a fraction. In the fraction 2/3, the denominator is 3. (Compare numerator.)

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• denominators
  plural

Etymology

Origin of denominator

1535–45; < Medieval Latin dēnōminātor, equivalent to Latin dēnōminā ( re ) ( see denominate) + -tor -tor

Compare meaning

How does denominator compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• numerator vs. denominator

Explanation

Write a fraction like 1/2 and the denominator is the number on the bottom. In this case, the 2. Another word for denominator is divisor. Both of these words refer to the number under the line in a common fraction. Similarly, when you're talking about statistical values, a denominator refers to the whole number or population from which samples are taken. The national census, for example, gathers the total number of people and households in the country so that there is a denominator by which to compare statistics like unemployment or welfare.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

denominator denominators

I found, unsurprisingly, that the steps people have taken vary quite significantly, but they all have one common denominator: The greens are cooked—in more ways than one.

From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026

Szymanski observes that the vast majority of successful footballing nations share another common denominator: wealth.

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026

It willfully tries to make something seem lowest common denominator, so that there can be a community based around that thing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026

“First principles thinking to me is the lowest common denominator of the problem in the elements of the problem—so like I think about breaking the problem down to…atomic level,” McNeill said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026

“This fraction of which the denominator is a cipher, is termed an infinite quantity,” writes Bhaskara, a twelfth-century Indian mathematician, who tells of what happens when you add a number to 1 + 0.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

“I try to just take the most common denominators and eliminate those from the menu,” said Paltrow.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Now that fires from Pacific Palisades to Altadena to Castaic have finally subsided, thousands upon thousands of residents are returning to a life dispossessed of its least common denominators.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025

There are some common denominators causing stress on the system that will take radical reform to tackle.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2024

Expanding our knowledge of sleep behaviors across the animal kingdom, sleep researchers note, could reveal common denominators of what the behavior is for at the most basic level.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 29, 2023

It was a sort of mathematical homunculus—an idea borrowed from Pythagoras and Plato—but dressed up with fractions and denominators into a modern-sounding law.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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