Nombreus

Nombreus is a fictional term used in speculative fiction and thought experiments to describe a hypothetical class of numerals that encode qualitative attributes alongside quantity. The term is not widely used in scholarly literature and is generally introduced in world-building or linguistic thought experiments to explore information density in numeral systems.

The term nombreus is a coined word, combining elements of Latin-inspired forms and the English words number and numerous. Its spelling evokes a Latin-derived neuter noun form, though it has no single official etymology.

In mathematical fiction, nombreus refers to an abstract numeral system in which each number carries semantic content beyond magnitude. For example, a nombreus three could denote three items in a specific state or quality.

In linguistics thought experiments, nombreus is employed as a hypothetical class of numerals that function as determinants or adjectives, encoding features such as size, color, or location while agreeing with the noun they modify.

The concept is used to provoke discussion about how much information a numeral can or should encode and how syntax and semantics interact when numbers carry meaning besides quantity.

See also: Numeral, Number, Semantic syntax, Numeral classifier.