whole numbers

Cultural  

1. The set of familiar numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on) sometimes called natural numbers or counting numbers. When they are called counting numbers, zero is not included.

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The whole numbers are also called the positive integers (or the nonnegative integers, if zero is included).

Example Sentences

Astronomical-difficulty scores, which are combined on each event with an execution score out of 10, allow Biles to win competitions by whole numbers as most of her peers fight for half-tenths.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 23, 2024

Resonances occur naturally, when planets happen to have orbital periods that are the ratio of whole numbers.

From Salon • Feb. 6, 2024

But if it checks out, it will go some way towards taming the randomness of prime numbers, whole numbers that cannot be divided evenly by any number except themselves or 1.

From Scientific American • Nov. 15, 2022

A third of American adults can’t do two-step math problems with whole numbers or handle common fractions or percentages, such as ¾ and 50 percent.

From Washington Post • Sep. 15, 2022

I dropped my pencil and stopped studying about whole numbers to lean over the worktable.

From "The Stars Beneath Our Feet" by David Barclay Moore