Number vs Numeral vs Digit vs Character
What is the difference between a number, numeral, digit, and character? Let’s find out.
Number
Section titled “Number”A number is an idea of quantity. It is the abstract form of a quantity.
For instance, suppose you think of the quantity of novels you’ve read. In such a case, your thought (of the quantity of novels) is a number.
There are different ways to translate a number (your thought of quantity) into its physical form.
For instance, you can relate the quantity of novels with your fingers, pieces of bones, tapping the table, symbols, numerals, and so on.
Numeral
Section titled “Numeral”A numeral is the written form of a number.
In other words, suppose you express a number as a writable character. In that case, the character you used to represent the number is the numeral.
For instance, the following are numerals used to express the number seven:
- 7 (Hindu-Arabic numeral)
- VII (Roman numeral)
- 111 (Binary numeral)
A digit is each individual character of a numeral—for instance, 794 consists of the digits 7, 9, and 4.
Character
Section titled “Character”A character is a writable (or printable) mark.
Some examples of characters are as follows:
- Alphabetical letters (For instance, a, g, and z)
- Digits (For example, 0, 5, and 9)
- Punctuations (For instance, semicolon (;), question mark (?), and colon (:))
In the image above, digits 7, 9, and 4 are digital characters.