Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An instrument for performing multiplication and division.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A calculating machine.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun dated A calculating machine.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word arithmometer.

Examples

  • We have also added a machine known as the arithmometer and two typewriters to our clerical department.

    Evidences of Progress Among Colored People G. F. Richings 1902

  • The differences [Delta] D and [Delta] I are thus calculated, while the values of D (v) and I (v) are obtained by summation with the arithmometer, and entered in their respective columns.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various

  • On the way in which this is done, however, depends to a great extent the durability and trustworthiness of any arithmometer; in fact, it is often its weakest point.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" Various

  • Check out this Russian model of arithmometer, ominously named "Felix" (after Felix Dzerzhiski, founder of Soviet KGB) It was based on 1914 St. Petersburg's Odner-Hill company device, shown on the bottom, click on image for more -

    Dark Roasted Blend 2008

  • Check out this Russian model of arithmometer, ominously named "Felix" (after Felix Dzerzhiski, founder of Soviet KGB) It was based on 1914 St. Petersburg's Odner-Hill company device, shown on the bottom, click on image for more -

    Dark Roasted Blend 2008

  • Generally an arithmometer with multiple cogs and stepped drum mechanism, there is however a lot to disassemble.

    Dark Roasted Blend 2008

  • Generally an arithmometer with multiple cogs and stepped drum mechanism, there is however a lot to disassemble.

    Dark Roasted Blend 2008

  • n. obsession with numbers, especially compulsion to count things. arithmometer, armiferous adj. - carrying weapons or arms. adj. - like, pertaining to or composed of rings. armillary sphere, celestial globe composed only of rings marking equator, tropics, etc.

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • 1820, France. It sounds like a device from a Philip Pullman novel, but it was the first commercially successful mechanical calculator. Thomas de Colmar used the Leibniz Wheel to produce a machine that could add, subtract, multiply and divide. It was in popular use for one hundred years. See Calculating Devices.

    January 27, 2008