number theory

noun

: the study of the properties of integers

number theoretic adjective

number theorist noun

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

If Alex Smith can’t play because of a calf injury, the Football Team will start Taylor Heinicke, who earlier in December was taking online classes—number theory, partial differential equations, applied numerical methods and math and nature—at Old Dominion to wrap up his degree. —Andrew Beaton, WSJ, 1 Jan. 2021

Four Fields Medals were awarded for major breakthroughs in geometry, combinatorics, statistical physics and number theory, even as mathematicians continued to wrestle with how computers are changing the discipline. —Matt Carlstrom, Quanta Magazine, 22 Dec. 2022

On one side of the link was a fundamental object in number theory called the j-function. —Julie Rehmeyer, Discover Magazine, 29 Nov. 2015

Maynard’s award was for his discoveries in analytic number theory. —Konstantin Kakaes, Quanta Magazine, 22 Dec. 2022

As computers get faster and mathematicians explore the deeper realms of number theory, today’s codes will be broken. —Veronique Greenwood, Discover Magazine, 6 June 2011

Quite a bit of my work does have to do with elliptic curves, which are very natural objects in number theory and arithmetic geometry. —Quanta Magazine, 22 Nov. 2022

Mathematicians wanted to better understand these numbers that so closely resemble the most fundamental objects in number theory, the primes. —Jordana Cepelewicz, Quanta Magazine, 13 Oct. 2022

Then along came Larsen with a new proof about just that, one inspired by recent epochal work in a different area of number theory. —Jordana Cepelewicz, Quanta Magazine, 13 Oct. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1853, in the meaning defined above