Seealso:Listoftypesofnumbers

Thislistisincompleteyoucanhelpbyexpandingit.

Thisisalistofnumeralsystems,thatis,writingsystemsforexpressingnumbers.

Byculture
 Approx.first
Name Base Sample
appearance

Babyloniannumerals 60 3100BC

Egyptiannumerals 10 3000BC

or

Aegeannumerals 10 c1500BC

Mayanumerals 20 <15thcentury

Muiscanumerals 20 <15thcentury

Tamil

IndianNumerals 10 750BC690BC
Devanagari0

Chinesenumerals,Japanese
/
numerals,Koreannumerals(Sino 10

Korean)

Chineserodnumerals 10 1stcentury

N
Romannumerals 10 1000BC
LCDM

Greeknumerals 10 Before5thcenturyBC

HinduArabicnumerals 10 0123456789 9thcentury

Thainumerals 10

1617inRabdology,a
ababcacbcabcdad
JohnNapier'sLocationarithmetic 2 nonpositionalbinary
bdabdcdacdbcdabcd
system

Hebrewnumerals 10 800BC

Abjadnumerals 10

Bytypeofnotation

Numeralsystemsareclassifiedhereastowhethertheyusepositionalnotation(alsoknownas
placevaluenotation),andfurthercategorizedbyradixorbase.

Standardpositionalnumeralsystems
 AbinaryclockmightuseLEDsto
expressbinaryvalues.Inthisclock,
eachcolumnofLEDsshowsabinary
codeddecimalnumeralofthe
traditionalsexagesimaltime.

ThecommonnamesarederivedsomewhatarbitrarilyfromamixofLatinandGreek,insome
casesincludingrootsfrombothlanguageswithinasinglename.[1]
Base Name Usage

2 Binary Digitalcomputing

Cantorset(allpointsin[0,1]thatcanberepresentedinternarywith
no1s)countingTasbihinIslamhandfootyardandteaspoon
3 Ternary
tablespoonshotmeasurementsystemsmosteconomicalinteger
base

DatatransmissionandHilbertcurvesChumashanlanguages,and
4 Quaternary
Kharosthinumerals

Gumatj,Nunggubuyu,KuurnKopanNoot,andSaravecalanguages
5 Quinary
commoncountgroupinge.g.tallymarks

6 Senary Diceware,Ndom,Kanum,andProtoUraliclanguage(suspected)

CharlesXIIofSweden,Unixlikepermissions,Squawkcodes,DEC
8 Octal
PDP11,compactnotationforbinarynumbers

10 Decimal Mostwidelyusedbymoderncivilizations[2][3][4]

JokinglyproposedduringtheFrenchRevolutiontosettleadispute
11 Undecimal betweenthoseproposingashifttoduodecimalandthosewhowere
contentwithdecimal

LanguagesintheNigerianMiddleBeltJanji,GbiriNiragu,Piti,and
theNimbiadialectofGwandaraChepanglanguageofNepal,and
12 Duodecimal theMahldialectofMaldiviandozengrossgreatgrosscounting
hoursandmonthstimekeepingyearsofChinesezodiacfootand
inch.

13 Tridecimal Conwaybase13function

ProgrammingfortheHP9100A/Bcalculator[5]andimageprocessing
14 Tetradecimal
applications[6]

15 Pentadecimal TelephonyroutingoverIP,andtheHulilanguage

16 Hexadecimal Base16encodingcompactnotationforbinarydatatonalsystem

Celtic,Maya,Muisca,Inuit,Yoruba,Tlingit,andDzongkhanumerals
20 Vigesimal
Santali,andAinulanguages

24 Tetravigesimal Kaugellanguage

26 Hexavigesimal Base26encodingsometimesusedforencryptionorciphering.[7]

Mappingthenonzerodigitstothealphabetandzerotothespaceis
occasionallyusedtoprovidechecksumsforalphabeticdatasuchas
27 Septemvigesimal
personalnames,[8]toprovideaconciseencodingofalphabetic
strings,[9]orasthebasisforaformofgematria.[10]
30 Trigesimal TheNaturalAreaCode

32 Duotrigesimal Base32encodingandtheNgitilanguage

36 Hexatrigesimal Base36encodinguseofletterswithdigits

52 Duopentagesimal Base52encoding,avariantofBase62withoutvowels[11]

56 Hexapentagesimal Base56encoding,avariantofBase58[12]

57 Heptapentagesimal Base57encoding,avariantofBase62excludingI,O,l,U,andu[13]

58 Octopentagesimal Base58encoding

BabyloniannumeralsNewBase60encoding,similartoBase62,
excludingI,O,andl,butincluding_(underscore)[14]degrees
60 Sexagesimal
minutessecondsandhoursminutessecondsmeasurement
systemsEkariandSumerianlanguages

61 Unsexagesimal NewBase61encoding,variantofNewBase60withaspace[15]

62 Duosexagesimal Base62encoding,using09,AZ,andaz

64 Tetrasexagesimal Base64encoding

65 Pentasexagesimal Base65encoding,avariantofBase64[16]

Ascii85encoding.Thisistheminimumnumberofcharactersneeded
toencodea32bitnumberinto5printablecharactersinaprocess
85 Pentoctogesimal similartoMIME64encoding,since855isonlyslightlybiggerthan
232.Suchmethodis6.7%moreefficientthanMIME64which
encodesa24bitnumberinto4printablecharacters.

Base91encoding,usingallASCIIexcept""(0x2D),"\"(0x5C),and
91 Unnonagesimal
"'"(0x27)onevariantuses"\"(0x5C)inplaceof"""(0x22).

Base92encoding,usingallofASCIIexceptfor"`"(0x60)and"""
92 Duononagesimal
(0x22)duetoconfusability.[17]

94 Tetranonagesimal Base94encoding,usingallofASCIIprintablecharacters.[18]

Base95encoding,avariantofBase94withtheadditionoftheSpace
95 Pentanonagesimal
character.[19]

Nonstandardpositionalnumeralsystems

Bijectivenumeration
Base Name Usage

Unary
1 (Bijective Tallymarks
base1)

Bijective
10
base10

Bijective Spreadsheetcolumnnumeration.AlsousedbyJohnNashaspartofhis
26
base26 obsessionwithnumerologyandtheuncoveringof"hidden"messages.[20]

Signeddigitrepresentation

Base Name Usage

2 Balancedbinary(Nonadjacentform)

3 Balancedternary Ternarycomputers

5 Balancedquinary

9 Balancednonary

JohnColson
10 Balanceddecimal
AugustinCauchy

Negativebases

Thecommonnamesofthenegativebasenumeralsystemsareformedusingtheprefixnega,
givingnamessuchas:

Base Name Usage

2 Negabinary

3 Negaternary

10 Negadecimal

Complexbases

Base Name Usage

2i Quaterimaginarybase

1i Twindragonbase Twindragonfractalshape
Nonintegerbases

Base Name Usage

Goldenratiobase EarlyBetaencoder[21]

e Base Lowestradixeconomy

Base "Pinary"

2 Base

2 Base Scientificpitchnotation

Other

Mixedradix

Quotenotation

Redundantbinaryrepresentation

Nonpositionalnotation

AllknownnumeralsystemsdevelopedbeforetheBabyloniannumeralsarenonpositional.[22]

Seealso

Radix

Radixeconomy

Tableofbases

Listofnumbersinvariouslanguages(cardinalnumbernames)

Numeralprefix

References

1.^Forthemixedrootsoftheword"hexadecimal",seeEpp,Susanna(2010),Discrete
MathematicswithApplications (4thed.),CengageLearning,p.91,ISBN9781133168669.

2.^TheHistoryofArithmetic,LouisCharlesKarpinski,200pp,RandMcNally&Company,1925.

3.^Histoireuniverselledeschiffres,GeorgesIfrah,RobertLaffont,1994.

4.^TheUniversalHistoryofNumbers:Fromprehistorytotheinventionofthecomputer,
GeorgesIfrah,ISBN0471393401,JohnWileyandSonsInc.,NewYork,2000.Translatedfrom
theFrenchbyDavidBellos,E.F.Harding,SophieWoodandIanMonk
5.^HPMuseum

6.^FreePatentsOnline

7.^http://www.dcode.fr/base26cipher

8.^Grannis,ShaunJ.Overhage,J.MarcMcDonald,ClementJ.(2002),"Analysisofidentifier
performanceusingadeterministiclinkagealgorithm",ProcAMIASymp.,pp.305309,
PMC2244404 ,PMID12463836 .

9.^Stephens,KennethRod(1996),VisualBasicAlgorithms:ADeveloper'sSourcebookof
ReadytorunCode,Wiley,p.215,ISBN9780471134183.

10.^Sallows,Lee(1993),"Base27:thekeytoanewgematria" ,WordWays26(2):6777.

11.^"Base52" .Retrieved20160103.

12.^"Base56" .Retrieved20160103.

13.^"Base57" .Retrieved20160103.

14.^"NewBase60" .Retrieved20160103.

15.^"NewBase61" .Retrieved20160103.

16.^"Base65Encoding" .Retrieved20160103.

17.^"Base92" .Retrieved20160103.

18.^"Base94" .Retrieved20160103.

19.^"base95NumericSystem" .Retrieved20160103.

20.^Nasar,Sylvia(2001).ABeautifulMind.SimonandSchuster.pp.3336.ISBN07432
24574.

21.^Ward,Rachel(2008),"OnRobustnessPropertiesofBetaEncodersandGoldenRatio
Encoders",IEEETransactionsonInformationTheory54(9):43244334,
doi:10.1109/TIT.2008.928235

22.^ChrisomaliscallstheBabyloniansystem"thefirstpositionalsystemever"inChrisomalis,
Stephen(2010),NumericalNotation:AComparativeHistory ,CambridgeUniversityPress,
p.254,ISBN9781139485333.