arithmetic

UK/æɹɪθˈmɛtɪk/US[əˈɹɪθmətɪk]

nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,818 of 15,258leans written

Arithmetic is the part of maths dealing with adding and dividing. Mental arithmetic, simple arithmetic, arithmetic errors.

It is the oldest branch and the only one most people use daily. Stressed on the second syllable it is the noun and on the third the adjective — an arithmetic progression. The Greek behind it means the art of counting.

Definitions of arithmetic

1nounarithmeticThe part of maths dealing with numbers and calculation.B1+
“She did the arithmetic in her head and worked out that we'd be late.”

arithmetic is a branch of maths.

Where it comes from

Greek arithmetike techne means the art of counting, from arithmos, a number.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₂er-
Old French
arismetique
Middle English
arsmetike
English, today
arithmetic

Built from

ἀριθμητικός · Ancient Greek — arithmetical
ἀριθμός · Ancient Greek — number, counting
*h₂rey- · Proto-Indo-European — to count, reason

From Middle English arsmetike, from Old French arismetique. From Middle English arsmetike, from Old French arismetique, from Latin arithmētica, from Ancient Greek ἀριθμητική (τέχνη) (“(art of) counting”), feminine of ἀριθμητικός (“arithmetical”), from ἀριθμός (“number, counting”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂ri-dʰh₁-mó-s, form of h₂rey- (“to count, reason”). Used in English since 13th century.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in School Subjects

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arithmetic in the wild

For example, per capita income is the arithmetic average of the income of a nation's population.
Arithmetic mean
Real number arithmetic is about calculations with real numbers, which include both rational and irrational numbers.
Arithmetic
Binary arithmetic, by contrast, is used by most computers and represents numbers as combinations of the basic numerals 0 and 1.
Arithmetic
For this reason, floating-point arithmetic is often used to allow very small and very large real numbers that require fast processing times.
Floating-point arithmetic
The modern approach to number theory using modular arithmetic was developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss in his book Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, published in 1801.
Modular arithmetic

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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