mantissa

American  

[man-tis-uh] / mænˈtɪs ə /

noun

1. Mathematics. the decimal part of a common logarithm.

2. Obsolete. an addition of little or no importance, as to a literary work.

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mantissa British  

/ mænˈtɪsə /

noun

1. the fractional part of a common logarithm representing the digits of the associated number but not its magnitude Compare characteristic

   the mantissa of 2.4771 is .4771

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mantissa Scientific  

/ măn-tĭs′ə /

1. The part of a logarithm to the base ten that is to the right of the decimal point. For example, if 2.749 is a logarithm, .749 is the mantissa.

2. Compare characteristic

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Etymology

Origin of mantissa

1860–65; < Latin, variant of mantisa addition, makeweight, said to be from Etruscan; logarithmic mantissa so called because it is additional to the characteristic or integral part (term introduced by H. Briggs)

Example Sentences

Why, for openers, does he call this novel Mantissa and then provide a self-deprecatory definition of the word, "An addition of comparatively small importance, especially to a literary effort or discourse"?

From Time Magazine Archive

Mantissa is clearly an example of serious modern fiction, with itself as its subject, and not a trace of difficulty is visible anywhere in its construction.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mantissa is a jeu d 'esprit with a vengeance, its principal characters, like so many of Fowles' earlier creations, held in thrall by forces they cannot quite explain.

From Time Magazine Archive

Linnæus has described this plant minutely in his Mantissa Plant, so that no doubt remains of its being his maritimus.

From The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 5 Or, Flower-Garden Displayed by Curtis, William

The Mantissa Suppellectilis was an unfinished production; and the Specimen nov� Bibliothec� Manuscriptorum Librorum, Paris, 1653, 4to., is too imperfectly executed for the exercise of rigid criticism; although Baillet calls it 'useful and curious.'

From Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance by Dibdin, Thomas Frognall