Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Number \Num"ber\, n. [OE. nombre, F. nombre, L. numerus; akin to
   Gr. ? that which is dealt out, fr. ? to deal out, distribute.
   See {Numb}, {Nomad}, and cf. {Numerate}, {Numero},
   {Numerous}.]
   1. That which admits of being counted or reckoned; a unit, or
      an aggregate of units; a numerable aggregate or collection
      of individuals; an assemblage made up of distinct things
      expressible by figures.

   2. A collection of many individuals; a numerous assemblage; a
      multitude; many.

            Ladies are always of great use to the party they
            espouse, and never fail to win over numbers.
                                                  --Addison.

   3. A numeral; a word or character denoting a number; as, to
      put a number on a door.

   4. Numerousness; multitude.

            Number itself importeth not much in armies where the
            people are of weak courage.           --Bacon.

   5. The state or quality of being numerable or countable.

            Of whom came nations, tribes, people, and kindreds
            out of number.                        --2 Esdras
                                                  iii. 7.

   6. Quantity, regarded as made up of an aggregate of separate
      things.

   7. That which is regulated by count; poetic measure, as
      divisions of time or number of syllables; hence, poetry,
      verse; -- chiefly used in the plural.

            I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came. --Pope.

   8. (Gram.) The distinction of objects, as one, or more than
      one (in some languages, as one, or two, or more than two),
      expressed (usually) by a difference in the form of a word;
      thus, the singular number and the plural number are the
      names of the forms of a word indicating the objects
      denoted or referred to by the word as one, or as more than
      one.

   9. (Math.) The measure of the relation between quantities or
      things of the same kind; that abstract species of quantity
      which is capable of being expressed by figures; numerical
      value.

   {Abstract number}, {Abundant number}, {Cardinal number}, etc.
      See under {Abstract}, {Abundant}, etc.

   {In numbers}, in numbered parts; as, a book published in
      numbers.