Word.ws English Dictionary

number sign

number sign noun: the character # used to represent the word number.

Noun

number sign (plural number signs)

  1. (US) The character # used to represent the word number.
    • The number sign (#) is used when the number to be printed represents cents only, and is designed to prevent any one from placing a false figure in the dollar position on the check.1912, United States. Patent Office, Specifications and Drawings of Patents Issued from the United States Patent Office, Volume 466, Part 2, Issues 99-988, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 4919
    • 367. Characters.—The upper case of the first row of keys contains characters. You will have frequent occasion to use the quotation mark or ditto ("), the underscore (_), the apostrophe ('), parenthesis left [(] and right [)], and the hyphen (-). The number sign (#), the dollar sign ($), percent...1942, United States. War Department, Technical Manual
    Synonyms:
    hash sign, pound sign, crunch, hash, hash mark /hashmark, hashtag, octothorpe /octothorn, pound, square

Examples of number sign in a sentence

  • The number sign (#), the dollar sign ($), percent sign (%), the ampersand or "and" sign (&), and the asterisk (*) are mostly used in reports and tabulating work.1942, United States. War Department, Technical Manual:
  • New material which has been inserted on the page is indicated by the number sign (#).1942, United States Civil Service Commission, Operations Manual for Placement of Women and Physically Handicapped, U.S. Government Printing...

Synonyms of number sign

All synonyms of number sign

Forms of number sign

pluralnumber signs

Questions about number sign

What does number sign mean?
Number sign means the character # used to represent the word number.
How do you use number sign in a sentence?
The number sign (#), the dollar sign ($), percent sign (%), the ampersand or "and" sign (&), and the asterisk (*) are mostly used in reports and tabulating work.
What part of speech is number sign?
Number sign is a noun.
What is the plural of number sign?
The plural of number sign is number signs.

Words near number sign in the dictionary

  1. number rays
  2. number sentence
  3. number sentences
  4. number seven
  5. number sevens
  6. number sign
  7. number signs
  8. number six
  9. number sixes
  10. number system
  11. number systems

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: number sign (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.

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Cite this entry: “number sign.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/number_sign. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.