The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, N
o, No. or no.),
is a
typographic
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...
abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating
ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, the written long-form of the address is shortened to , yet both forms are spoken long.
Typographically, the numero sign combines as a single
ligature
Ligature may refer to:
* Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure
** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry
* Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...
the uppercase Latin letter with a usually superscript lowercase
letter , sometimes underlined, resembling the masculine
ordinal indicator
In written languages, an ordinal indicator is a character, or group of characters, following a numeral denoting that it is an ordinal number, rather than a cardinal number. In English orthography, this corresponds to the suffixes ''-st'', ''- ...
. The ligature has a
code point
In character encoding terminology, a code point, codepoint or code position is a numerical value that maps to a specific character. Code points usually represent a single grapheme—usually a letter, digit, punctuation mark, or whitespace—but ...
in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
as a
precomposed character
A precomposed character (alternatively composite character or decomposable character) is a Unicode entity that can also be defined as a sequence of one or more other characters. A precomposed character may typically represent a letter with a diacri ...
, .
The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' derives the numero sign from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, the
ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...
form of ("number", with the ablative denotations of "by the number, with the number"). In
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
, the numero sign is understood as an abbreviation of the word for "number", e.g. Italian , French , and Portuguese and Spanish'' ''.
This article describes other typographical abbreviations for "number" in different languages, in addition to the numero sign proper.
Usages
The numero sign as a single
glyph
A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...
, despite its widespread usage internationally, is not a standard keyboard symbol in virtually any European language. Its substitution by the two separate letters and is common. A capital or lower-case "n" may be used, followed by "o.", superscript "o", ordinal indicator, or the degree sign; this will be understood in most languages.
Bulgarian
![Bulgarian BDS layout](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Bulgarian_BDS_layout.svg)
In Bulgarian the numero sign is often used and it is present in three widely used keyboard layouts accessible with in BDS and prBDS and with on the Phonetic layout.
English
In English, the non-ligature form is typical and is often used to abbreviate the word "number".
In North America, the
number sign
The symbol is known variously in English-speaking regions as the number sign, hash, or pound sign. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes including the designation of an ordinal number and as a Typographic ligature, ...
, , is more prevalent. The ligature form does not appear on
British or American QWERTY keyboards.
French
The numero symbol is not in common use in France and does not appear on a standard
AZERTY
AZERTY () is a specific keyboard layout, layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboard (computing), keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letter (alphabet), letters to appear on the fir ...
keyboard. Instead, the French
Imprimerie nationale
The Imprimerie nationale (), known also as IN Groupe brand, is a company specialized in the production of secure documents, such as identity cards and passports, and a supplier of public utility identification applications. Owned by the French st ...
recommends the use of the form "n
o" (an "n" followed by a
superscript
A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, whil ...
lowercase "o"). The plural form "n
os" can also be used.
In practice, the "o" is often replaced by the
degree symbol
The degree symbol or degree sign, , is a typographical symbol that is used, among other things, to represent degrees of arc (e.g. in geographic coordinate systems), hours (in the medical field), degrees of temperature or alcohol proof. The symbo ...
(°), which is visually similar to the superscript "o" and is easily accessible on an AZERTY keyboard.
Indonesian and Malaysian
"Nomor" in Indonesian and "nombor" in Malaysian; therefore "No." is commonly used as an abbreviation with standard spelling and full stop.
Italian
![N_with_combining_o_above_Numero](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/N_with_combining_o_above_Numero.jpg)
The sign is usually replaced with the abbreviations "n." or "nº", the latter using a
masculine ordinal indicator
In written languages, an ordinal indicator is a character, or group of characters, following a numeral denoting that it is an ordinal number, rather than a cardinal number. In English orthography, this corresponds to the suffixes ''-st'', ''- ...
, rather than a superscript "O".
Philippines
Because of more than three centuries of
Spanish colonisation, the word ''número'' is found in almost all Philippine languages. "No." is its common notation in local languages as well as English.
Portuguese
In Portugal the notation "n.º" is often used, as in Spain. In Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language, "nº" is often used on official documents.
Russian
Although the letter is not in the
Cyrillic alphabet
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
, the numero sign is typeset in Russian publishing, and is available on
Russian computer and typewriter keyboards.
File:Fox Typewriter 24 with Russian layout.JPG, 1912 typewriter with Russian layout.
sign can be seen on the key.
File:Машинка Любава ПП-305-01 клавиатура.JPG, Russian typewriter, circa 1985.
sign can be seen on the key.
File:KB Russian.svg, Russian keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard.
is the actua ...
for Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
.
The sign can be seen on the key.
The numero sign is very widely used in Russia and other
post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
in many official and casual contexts. Examples include usage for law and other official documents numbering, names of institutions (hospitals, kindergartens, schools, libraries, organization departments and so on), numbering of periodical publications (such as newspapers and magazines), numbering of public transport routes, etc.
"№ п/п" (', "sequential number") is universally used as a table header to denote a column containing the table row number.
The № sign is sometimes used in Russian
medical prescription
A prescription, often abbreviated or Rx, is a formal communication from a physician or other registered health-care professional to a pharmacist, authorizing them to dispense a specific prescription drug for a specific patient. Historica ...
s (which according to the law must be written in
Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
) as an abbreviation for the Latin word ''numero'' to indicate the number of prescribed dosages (for example, tablets or capsules), and on the price tags in drugstores and pharmacy websites to indicate number of
unit dose
Dosage forms (also called unit doses) are pharmaceutical drug products in the form in which they are marketed for use, with a specific mixture of active ingredients and inactive components (excipients), in a particular configuration (such as a cap ...
s in drug packages, although the standard abbreviation for use in prescriptions is the Latin
Spanish
The numero sign is not typically used in Iberian Spanish, and it is not present on standard keyboard layouts. According to the
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...
and the
Fundéu BBVA
The FundéuRAE (''Fundéu'' being an acronym for es, Fundación del Español Urgente, lit=Foundation of Emerging Spanish) is a non-profit organization founded in February 2005 in Madrid, Spain. The foundation was created in collaboration with t ...
,
the word ''número'' (number) is abbreviated per the Spanish typographic convention of
''letras voladas'' ("flying letters"). The first letter(s) of the word to be abbreviated are followed by a period; then, the final letter(s) of the word are written as lowercase superscripts. This gives the abbreviations n.
o (singular) and n.
os (plural). The abbreviation "no." is not used, because it might be mistaken for the Spanish word ''no'' (no, not). Furthermore, nro. and núm. are also acceptable abbreviations for ''número''. The numero sign either as a one-character symbol (№) or composed of the letter N plus the superscript "o" character (sometimes underlined or substituted by ordinal indicator
º) is common in Latin America, where the interpolated period is sometimes not used in abbreviations.
Nr.
In some languages, ''Nr.'', ''nr.'', ''nr'' or ''NR'' is used instead, reflecting the abbreviation of the language's word for "number". German ' is represented this way, and this language capitalises all nouns and abbreviations of nouns. Lithuanian uses it as well, and it is usually capitalised in
bureaucratic
The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
contexts, especially with the meaning "reference number" (such as ', "contract No.") but in other contexts it follows the usual sentence capitalisation (such as ''tel. nr.'', abbreviation for ', "telephone number"). It is most commonly lowercase in other languages, such as Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Estonian and Swedish. Some languages, such as Polish, omit the dot in
abbreviation
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
s, if the last letter of the original word is present in the abbreviation.
Typing the symbol
On typewriters and computers that do not support this symbol, it is acceptable and commonplace to replace it with the
trigraph "No." (letter "N", letter "o", and a period (full stop)).
On typewriters and computers that support the degree symbol a
digraph "N°" may be used. If the masculine
ordinal indicator
In written languages, an ordinal indicator is a character, or group of characters, following a numeral denoting that it is an ordinal number, rather than a cardinal number. In English orthography, this corresponds to the suffixes ''-st'', ''- ...
is available, the better digraph "Nº" may be used. These result in a passable approximation of the numero sign, but a consistent notation must be used in digital data which must be searchable.
On
Russian computer keyboard layout, the № character is available and often located on the key.
In
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, the character can be typed using "U.S. Extended" and "Irish Extended" keyboard layouts by typing . As of macOS 10.13, this combination does not yield the numero symbol when "U.S." or "U.S. International" is chosen. It will only yield the numero symbol when "ABC – Extended" is chosen as the input keyboard.
In
X11
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wit ...
(and related, like Linux) systems with a
compose key
A compose key (sometimes called multi key) is a key on a computer keyboard that indicates that the following (usually 2 or more) keystrokes trigger the insertion of an alternate character, typically a precomposed character or a symbol.
For insta ...
, the character can be typed using , , . Alternatively
standard XIM style can be used: then .
In
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
and
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...
in general, the numero sign can be entered by the
Unicode input
Unicode input is the insertion of a specific Universal Character Set characters, Unicode character on a computer by a user (computing), user; it is a common way to input characters not directly supported by a physical Keyboard (computing), keybo ...
methods
№
or
№
.
Technical considerations
See also
*
Superior letter
In typography and handwriting, a superior letter is a lower-case letter placed above the baseline and made smaller than ordinary script. The style has traditionally been distinct from superscript. Formerly quite common in abbreviations, the orig ...
References
External links
Unicode Letterlike Symbols code chart
{{DEFAULTSORT:Numero Sign
Typographical symbols
Numbers