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/dɪnˈɑmənˌeɪtər/ Listen

noun

Denominator n.

1.

One who, or that which, gives a name; origin or source of a name. "This opinion that Aram... was the father and denomination of the Syrians in general."

2.

(Arith.) That number placed below the line in common fractions which shows into how many parts the integer or unit is divided. Note: Thus, in 3/5, 5 is the denominator, showing that the integer is divided into five parts; and the numerator, 3, shows how many parts are taken.

3.

(Alg.) That part of any expression under a fractional form which is situated below the horizontal line signifying division. Note: In this sense, the denominator is not necessarily a number, but may be any expression, either positive or negative, real or imaginary.

common denominator a number which can divide either of two or more other numbers without leaving a remainder in any of the divisions; as, 2 and 4 are common denominators of 12 and 28..

greatest common denominator the largest common denominator of two or more numbers; as, 9 is the greatest common denominator of 18 and 27..

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Etymology of 'Denominator'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Denominator" Quotes from Famous Books

... ways you can sell your timber. You can either measure your trees and sell on a volume basis, or you can mark certain trees and state to several buyers, "I have marked 25 trees for sale. What is your best offer for them?" Each buyer looks at the same trees, and you have a common denominator for comparing the fairness ...

— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association

... After the stage of despair comes the period of consolation. We soon find that we are not so much worse off than most of our neighbors as we supposed. The fractional value of the wisest shows a small numerator divided by an infinite denominator of knowledge. ...

— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... moderation, of compromise and unfinished thought, who claimed the right of taxing, but refused to employ it. When he urged the differences in every situation and every problem, and shrank from the common denominator and the underlying principle, he fell into step with his friends. As an Irishman, who had married into an Irish Catholic family, it was desirable that he should adopt no theories in America which ...

— Lectures on the French Revolution • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... of course, that these men are afraid of bombast and Scott was not. A man will not reach eloquence if he is afraid of bombast, just as a man will not jump a hedge if he is afraid of a ditch. As the object of all eloquence is to find the least common denominator of men's souls, to fall just within the natural comprehension, it cannot obviously have any chance with a literary ambition which aims at falling just outside it. It is quite right to invent subtle analyses ...

— Twelve Types • G.K. Chesterton

... be required in good English, clear and definite, like the questions. Pupils who say, "An improper fraction is 'where' the numerator is greater than the denominator"; "A compound sentence is 'when' it has two or more independent clauses," should be led to restate their answers in ...

— The Recitation • George Herbert Betts

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