number sign
"number-sign" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“number sign” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The character # used to represent the word number.
Corpus desk
Index EN-number-sign · number sign · English
number sign · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "N" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | number sign |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “number sign” in English
Rare enough to double-check
number sign is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The character # used to represent the word number.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for number sign, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is number sign, spelled N-U-M-B-E-R- -S-I-G-N.
Definition
- 1The character # used to represent the word number.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how number sign appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
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.
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 sign (%), the ampersand or "and" sign (&), and the asterisk (…
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.