Denominator

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /dɪˈnɒmɪneɪtə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. The number written below the line in a fraction that shows how many equal parts the whole is divided into ; a shared element or characteristic that provides a basis for comparing different things
2. A figure placed underneath the numerator representing the total number of equal segments in a fraction ; a common trait or factor among items that serves as a point of reference for comparison
3. The bottom number in a fraction indicating the total parts the whole is divided into ; an underlying similarity or standard used to relate or measure diverse entities

Etymology: The word's core idea is naming. Its Latin ancestor, "dēnōminātor," meant "that which names," and it was built from "dē-" (here meaning "from" or "down from") and "nōmen," "name." Roman writers used the root "nōmen" in countless words, from "nominate" to "name" itself, so the Latin speaker would have heard a straightforward naming word. English took the term directly from Late Latin as a learned borrowing, a scholarly import rather than something that passed through everyday speech. The leap from "naming" to fractions is a matter of how a fraction is read. In "3/4," the lower number names the kind of part being counted: quarters, not thirds or fifths. The top number tells you how many of those parts you have. Mathematicians therefore treated the bottom figure as the one that names the division, and the Latin word fit that role neatly. The same logic underlies the second sense, where a shared trait is the "name" that all the items are measured against.

Synonyms: divisor