Significands

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Parts of a floating-point number that hold the digits giving its precision, separate from the exponent that sets its scale
2. The digit-bearing portions of numbers stored in computer floating-point format, which determine how precisely a value is represented
3. Components of binary or decimal floating-point values that store the meaningful digits, while a separate field records the magnitude

Etymology: The word "significand" is a deliberate coinage, not an old term that has drifted in meaning. It was built from "significant", the adjective meaning "important" or "meaningful", and it names the digits in a number that carry its precision, as opposed to the exponent that records its scale. The choice is a pun on the mathematical sense of "significant figures," the digits in a measurement that actually count toward its accuracy, and the computing usage took that idea and gave it a name of its own. The plural "significands" is simply the plural of "significand," so it refers to several such digit strings, one per number being stored.

Synonyms: mantissa