Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To enumerate; count.
  • adjective Able to think and express oneself effectively in quantitative terms.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Counted.
  • To count; reckon; read (an expression in figures) according to the rules of numeration; enumerate.

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

  • transitive verb (Arith.) To divide off and read according to the rules of numeration.

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

  • verb transitive to count
  • adjective Having the ability to understand number and perform arithmetic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb read out loud as words written numbers
  • adjective able to understand and use numbers
  • verb determine the number or amount of

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin numerāre, numerāt-, from numerus, number; see number.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin numerātus, past participle of numerō.

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Examples

  • No one can argue that our children need to be literate and numerate.

    Richard Kessler: Waiting for all the Superheroes Richard Kessler 2010

  • I think we all know that being numerate and literate are important, but this government has an obsession with tinkering with education, literacy schemes, numeracy frameworks and national curriculum objectives which mean that teachers are constantly having to change the way something is taught before we know if the way we had been doing it is actually going to be the best or most successful methods.

    A plea on behalf of education Norfolk Blogger 2009

  • You will know how to work within a budget, be numerate and have good computing skills.

    Engineering: civil 2012

  • Still, even if they aren't all Jonathan Ive, the country is undeniably full of literate, numerate plumbers, waiters, garage attendants etc.

    Help! My children have grown up French 2012

  • You will know how to work within a budget, be numerate and have good computing skills.

    Engineering: mechanical 2012

  • You will know how to work within a budget, be numerate and have good computing skills.

    Engineering: electronic and electrical 2011

  • These most hard-nosed and numerate of executives didn't think regulation or economic models were chiefly at fault, and they were entirely dismissive of the idea that banks had failed due to 'global circumstances beyond anyone's control.'

    Margaret Heffernan: Beware the Students Who Want to Be Bankers Now Margaret Heffernan 2011

  • The angle won't work on folks like me -- the numerate -- but since most Americans have poor math skills, you just might sell more books.

    My Book is Available, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • You will know how to work within a budget, be numerate, and you will have good computing skills.

    Engineering: chemical 2011

  • You will know how to work within a budget, be numerate and have good computing skills.

    Engineering: general 2012

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