Word.ws English Dictionary

Egyptian fraction

Egyptian fraction noun: a representation of a rational number as a sum of distinct unit fractions.

Noun

Egyptian fraction (plural Egyptian fractions)

  1. A representation of a rational number as a sum of distinct unit fractions.
    • The fraction #92;frac#123;7#125;#123;10#125; can be written as the Egyptian fraction #92;frac#123;1#125;#123;2#125;#43;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;5#125;.
    • The calculation of Mᴺ where both M and N are real numbers can be done by expressing N as the sum of an integer h and an Egyptian fraction 1#47;g#95;1#43;1#47;g#95;2#43;1#47;g#95;3#43;.... Then...
  2. (rare) A unit fraction.

Examples of Egyptian fraction in a sentence

  • In [27], Erdős also considers various questions relating to Egyptian fraction decompositions of #92;textstyle 1#61;#92;sumⁿ#95;#123;k#61;1#125;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;x#95;k#125;.2013, R. L. Graham, “Paul Erdős and Egyptian Fractions”, in László Lovász, Imre Ruzsa, Vera T. Sós, editors, Erdős Centennial, Springer...
  • Furthermore, this criticism does not do justice to the development of Egyptian fractions.2016, Annette Imhausen, Mathematics in Ancient Egypt: A Contextual History, Princeton University Press, page 5:

Forms of Egyptian fraction

pluralEgyptian fractions

Questions about Egyptian fraction

What does Egyptian fraction mean?
Egyptian fraction means a representation of a rational number as a sum of distinct unit fractions.
How do you use Egyptian fraction in a sentence?
In [27], Erdős also considers various questions relating to Egyptian fraction decompositions of #92;textstyle 1#61;#92;sumⁿ#95;#123;k#61;1#125;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;x#95;k#125;.
What part of speech is Egyptian fraction?
Egyptian fraction is a noun.
What is the plural of Egyptian fraction?
The plural of Egyptian fraction is Egyptian fractions.

Words near Egyptian fraction in the dictionary

  1. Egyptian cottons
  2. Egyptian cross
  3. Egyptian crosses
  4. Egyptian darkness
  5. Egyptian flu
  6. Egyptian fraction
  7. Egyptian fractions
  8. Egyptian geese
  9. Egyptian goose
  10. Egyptian henbane
  11. Egyptian jackal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Egyptian fraction (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Egyptian fraction.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/egyptian_fraction. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.