significant digits

American  

plural noun

Mathematics.

1. all the nonzero digits of a number and the zeros that are included between them or that are final zeros and signify accuracy.

   The significant digits of 0.01230 are 1, 2, 3, and the final 0, which signifies accuracy to five places.

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Etymology

Origin of significant digits

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Most other fundamental constants are known to six or more significant digits with far greater agreement.

From Science Daily • May 18, 2026

Express the decimal result to four significant digits and the percentage to two significant digits.

From Textbooks • Sep. 23, 2020

For the purpose of graphing, round the data to two significant digits.

From Textbooks • Sep. 23, 2020

If modellers tell the United Kingdom it will see 510,000 deaths9 if no steps are taken to mitigate the pandemic, some might imagine a confidence of two significant digits.

From Nature • Jun. 23, 2020

She worked through every minute of what was programmed to be a three-orbit mission, coming up with numbers for eleven different output variables, each computed to eight significant digits.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly