prime number

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noun Mathematics.

a positive integer that is not divisible without remainder by any integer except itself and 1, with 1 often excluded: The integers 2, 3, 5, and 7 are prime numbers.

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Also called prime.

Origin of prime number

First recorded in 1585–95

Words nearby prime number

prime interest rate, primely, prime meridian, prime minister, prime mover, prime number, prime number theorem, prime of life, primer, prime rate, prime ribs

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

How to use prime number in a sentence

You had to realize that 1 was an allowable digit, even though it isn’t a prime number.
Can You Skillfully Ski The Slopes?|Zach Wissner-Gross|January 22, 2021|FiveThirtyEight
Moreover, I learned that if the Riemann hypothesis is true, we’ll get a much stronger prime number theorem than the one known today.
How I Learned to Love and Fear the Riemann Hypothesis|Alex Kontorovich|January 4, 2021|Quanta Magazine
The Oxford mathematician James Maynard, for example, regularly spends time attacking famously difficult problems and has stubbornly refused to accept defeat, instead wresting new insights from the gaps between prime numbers.
The Year in Math and Computer Science|Bill Andrews|December 23, 2020|Quanta Magazine
If it finds an even integer that can’t be summed by a pair of prime numbers, it halts.
How the Slowest Computer Programs Illuminate Math’s Fundamental Limits|John Pavlus|December 10, 2020|Quanta Magazine

For example, one of the oldest results in math is Euclid’s proof from 300 BCE that there are infinitely many prime numbers.
At the Math Olympiad, Computers Prepare to Go for the Gold - Facts So Romantic|Kevin Hartnett|September 22, 2020|Nautilus
Domestically, the prime minister maintains the dubious line that he is the only man who can keep the still-fragile peace.
Cambodia’s Smoke-and-Mirrors Democracy|David Shaftel|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“Our members continue to face a number of challenges,” she said.
The Republican War on Kale|Patricia Murphy|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The number of dissenters though is unprecedented in the modern era.
Democrats Accidentally Save Boehner From Republican Coup|Ben Jacobs, Jackie Kucinich|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Starting under Theodore Roosevelt and Howard Taft, embassies headed by career diplomats increased in number.
U.S. Embassies Have Always Been for Sale|William O’Connor|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The number of diplomats was pitiful (45 appointees in 1860), as was the amount of money allocated to them.
U.S. Embassies Have Always Been for Sale|William O’Connor|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one cities, near a hundred walled towns, and a great number of villages.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
We had six field-pieces, but we only took four, harnessed wit twice the usual number of horses.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
There are a number of bacilli, called acid-fast bacilli, which stain in the same way as the tubercle bacillus.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
Five of the number had studied with Liszt before, and the young men are artists already before the public.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
But,” said the prime minister of Flatland, starting a difficulty, “who is to be greatest chief?
The Giant of the North|R.M. Ballantyne

British Dictionary definitions for prime number

prime number

noun

an integer that cannot be factorized into other integers but is only divisible by itself or 1, such as 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11Sometimes shortened to: prime Compare composite number

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 prime number

prime number

A positive integer greater than 1 that can only be divided by itself and 1 without leaving a remainder. Examples of prime numbers are 7, 23, and 67. Compare composite number.

Cultural definitions for prime number

prime number

A number that cannot be divided evenly by any other number except itself and the number one; 1, 3, 5, 7, and 11 are prime numbers.