prime number
"prime-number" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prime number” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any natural number greater than 1 that cannot be formed by multiplying two smaller natural numbers.
Corpus desk
Index EN-prime-number · prime number · English
prime number · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" 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 | prime number |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “prime number” in English
Rare enough to double-check
prime number is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for prime number, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is prime number, spelled P-R-I-M-E- -N-U-M-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1Any natural number greater than 1 that cannot be formed by multiplying two smaller natural numbers.
- 2Any natural number (including 1) that is divisible only by itself and 1.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how prime number appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The fundamental theorem of arithmetic states that every natural number greater than 1 can be factorized into prime numbers in a way that is unique up to the order in which the factors are written.
2007, James Alfred Walker, Julian Francis Miller, Predicting Prime Numbers Using Cartesian Genetic Programming, Marc Ebner, Michael O'Neill, Anikó Ekárt, Anna Isabel Esparcia-Alcázar, Leonardo Vanneschi (editors), Genetic Programming: 10th European Conference, EuroGP 2007, Proceedings, Springer, LNCS 4445, page 215, As the evolved solution for the first 1…
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
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.