multiplication

[ muhl-tuh-pli-key-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act or process of multiplying multiply or the state of being multiplied. multiply.
2. Arithmetic. a mathematical operation, symbolized by a × b, a ⋅ b, a ∗ b, or ab, and signifying, when a and b are positive integers, that a is to be added to itself as many times as there are units in b; the addition of a number to itself as often as is indicated by another number, as in 2×3 or 5×10.
3. Mathematics. any generalization of this operation applicable to numbers other than integers, as fractions or irrational numbers.

multiplication

/ ˌmʌltɪplɪˈkeɪʃən /

noun

1. an arithmetical operation, defined initially in terms of repeated addition, usually written a × b, a.b, or ab, by which the product of two quantities is calculated: to multiply a by positive integral b is to add a to itself b times. Multiplication by fractions can then be defined in the light of the associative and commutative properties; multiplication by 1/ n is equivalent to multiplication by 1 followed by division by n: for example 0.3 × 0.7 = 0.3 × 7 10 = (0.3 × 7)/10 = 2 1 10 = 0.21
2. the act of multiplying or state of being multiplied
3. the act or process in animals, plants, or people of reproducing or breeding

multiplication

/ mŭl′tə-plĭ-kā′shən /

1. A mathematical operation performed on a pair of numbers in order to derive a third number called a product. For positive integers, multiplication consists of adding a number (the multiplicand) to itself a specified number of times. Thus multiplying 6 by 3 means adding 6 to itself three times. The operation of multiplication is extended to other real numbers according to the rules governing the multiplicative properties of positive integers.
2. Any of certain analogous operations involving mathematical objects other than numbers.

Derived Forms

• ˌmultipliˈcational, adjective

Other Words From

• multi·pli·cation·al adjective
• nonmul·ti·pli·cation noun
• nonmul·ti·pli·cation·al adjective
• over·multi·pli·cation noun
• remul·ti·pli·cation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of multiplication¹

1350–1400; Middle English multiplicacio ( u ) n < Latin multiplicātiōn- (stem of multiplicātiō ). See multi-, plication

Example Sentences

You kind of arrest things very early, so either maybe there is no disease or just very limited virus multiplication.

From Popular-Science

They were doing subtraction and addition and multiplication today, it must have been third grade.

From Vox

This approach — a common way of trying to prove that rewriting systems terminate — would allow them to think of transformations of symbols as matrix multiplication.

From Quanta Magazine

Where Kobe and Shaq dealt in addition, LeBron and AD deal in multiplication.

From FiveThirtyEight

Mathematicians say the group of real numbers is “closed” under multiplication, meaning that you never leave the group just by multiplying elements.

From Quanta Magazine

His company names all ended in an X—EBX, OGX, MMX—because in numerology, X stands for the multiplication of wealth.

From The Daily Beast

The multiplication of love in the household is just pure delight.

From The Daily Beast

He commissioned singer-songwriter Bob Dorough to set the multiplication tables to a rock music song.

From The Daily Beast

"It was the miracle of the multiplication of gasoline," Saboia later told a Bolivian reporter.

From The Daily Beast

When working together, people experience what Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid hero, called “the multiplication of courage.”

From The Daily Beast

We have seen enough elsewhere of the multiplication of Commentaries on the Sentences of the Lombard and other scholastic works.

From Project Gutenberg

How many of the most important affairs of life can be demonstrated by means of the multiplication table?

From Project Gutenberg

Will the multiplication of red corpuscles continue so that men may become acclimatised much higher?

From Project Gutenberg

The majority of you no doubt know what the multiplication-table is, and I am sure you have thought it a pretty disagreeable thing.

From Project Gutenberg

The captain is an ambitious ass, he couldn't think his way through a multiplication table.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• amplification