NUMBERS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Numbers mean? 

• NUMBERS (noun)
  The noun NUMBERS has 2 senses:

1. the fourth book of the Old Testament; contains a record of the number of Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt

2. an illegal daily lottery

  Familiarity information: NUMBERS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NUMBERS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The fourth book of the Old Testament; contains a record of the number of Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

Book of Numbers; Numbers

Instance hypernyms:

book (a major division of a long written composition)

Holonyms ("Numbers" is a part of...):

Old Testament (the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible)

Laws; Pentateuch; Torah (the first of three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures comprising the first five books of the Hebrew Bible considered as a unit)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An illegal daily lottery

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

numbers; numbers game; numbers pool; numbers racket

Hypernyms ("numbers" is a kind of...):

drawing; lottery (players buy (or are given) chances and prizes are distributed by casting lots)

 Context examples 

They discovered that they could improve hedgehog proteins' signaling by increasing their numbers.

(Protein Discovery Could Help Heal Bones in Diabetics, VOA)

Not finding the variant in all groups despite large numbers of participants in each group strengthens the argument that findings from one population cannot always be generalized to others.

(Study of multiethnic genomes identifies 27 genetic variants associated with disease, National Institutes of Health)

The numbers we see may simply be the surplus population.

(Giant group of octopus moms discovered in the deep sea, National Science Foundation)

CCR3 is expressed in high numbers on eosinophils and is thought to be the major eosinophil chemokine receptor.

(Allergy Chemokine Network Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

A data type comprised of an unordered collection of telephone numbers.

(Bag Telephone Data Type, NCI Thesaurus)

A term used to describe a character string containing only letters and numbers.

(Alphanumeric, NCI Thesaurus)

The pH of normal skin is slightly acidic, which keeps numbers of bacteria low.

(New answer to MRSA, other 'superbug' infections: clay minerals?, NSF)

Among survivors of transplants from non-sibling donors, use of certain pre-transplant chemotherapy regimens was associated with higher T-cell numbers and more consistent B-cell function.

(Early treatment benefits infants with severe combined immunodeficiency, NIH)

Do individuals with low numbers of IELs get protected against cardiovascular disease?

(Some gut cells slow down metabolism, accelerate cardiovascular disease, National Institutes of Health)

And therefore, in recounting the numbers of those who have been killed in battle, I cannot but think you have said the thing which is not.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)