A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label.

The original examples are

the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth.[1] A written symbol like "5" that represents a number is
called a numeral. A numeral system is an organized way to write and manipulate this type of symbol,
for example the Hindu–Arabic numeral system allows combinations of numerical digits like "5" and
"0" to represent larger numbers like 50.[2] A numeral in linguistics can refer to a symbol like 5, the
words or phrase that names a number, like "five hundred", or other words that mean a specific
number, like "dozen". In addition to their use in counting and measuring, numerals are often used for
labels (as with telephone numbers), for ordering (as with serial numbers), and for codes (as
with ISBNs). In common usage, number may refer to a symbol, a word or phrase, or the
mathematical object.
In mathematics, the notion of number has been extended over the centuries to include 0,[3] negative
numbers,[4] rational numbers such as 1/2 and −2/3, real numbers[5] such as √2 and π, and complex
numbers,[6] which extend the real numbers with a square root of −1 (and its combinations with real
numbers by addition and multiplication).[4] Calculations with numbers are done with arithmetical
operations, the most familiar being addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exponentiation.
Their study or usage is called arithmetic. The same term may also refer to number theory, the study
of the properties of numbers.
Besides their practical uses, numbers have cultural significance throughout the world.[7][8] For
example, in Western society, the number 13 is regarded as unlucky, and "a million" may signify "a
lot."[7] Though it is now regarded as pseudoscience, belief in a mystical significance of numbers,
known as numerology, permeated ancient and medieval thought.[9] Numerology heavily influenced
the development of Greek mathematics, stimulating the investigation of many problems in number
theory which are still of interest today.[9]
During the 19th century, mathematicians began to develop many different abstractions which share
certain properties of numbers and may be seen as extending the concept. Among the first were
the hypercomplex numbers, which consist of various extensions or modifications of the complex
number system. Today, number systems are considered important special examples of much more
general categories such as rings and fields, and the application of the term "number" is a matter of
convention, without fundamental significance.[10]