quaternion
French, noun\kwa.tɛʁ.njɔ̃\
quaternion is spelled Q-U-A-T-E-R-N-I-O-N (10 letters) and appears about once in every 42 million words in written French, the 205,184th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Quaternion is a French masculine noun meaning “quaternion” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Nombre découvert par le mathématicien irlandais William Rowan Hamilton, et qui s’écrit sous la forme a + bi +…”.
What does quaternion mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinequaternion
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Nombre découvert par le mathématicien irlandais William Rowan Hamilton, et qui s’écrit sous la forme a + bi + cj + dk avec i² = j² = k² = -1 et ij = -ji = k, jk = -kj = i et ki = -ik = j. 2. Dans un codex ou un livre, cahier composé de quatre feuilles doubles (bifeuillets), soit 8 feuilles et 16 pages.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of quaternion
- quaternions plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce quaternion?
- \kwa.tɛʁ.njɔ̃\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to quaternion
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is quaternion in French?
quaternion appears about once in every 42 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).