Multiplication

How to spell multiplication

14 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce multiplication

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does multiplication mean?

1. nounThe arithmetical process of adding a number to itself a specified number of times.
2. nounA large increase in the number or amount of something.

Multiplication in a sentence

• The teacher drilled the class on their multiplication tables every morning.

• The rapid multiplication of small businesses transformed the high street.

• Solving the problem required both multiplication and division.

• Scientists studied the multiplication of bacteria under warm conditions.

Where does multiplication come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin multiplicare, meaning 'to increase' or, quite literally, 'to fold many times', built from multus 'many' and plicare 'to fold'. The Romans formed the noun multiplicatio for the act of multiplying, and it passed into English through Old French as multiplicacion during the 1300s, at first in general senses of increasing in number before settling into its precise arithmetical meaning. The plicare root, meaning 'to fold', is surprisingly productive in English: it also gives us 'ply', 'pliable', 'complicate', and 'reply', all of which carry a hidden idea of folding or bending. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: writers reach the 'pli' and 'ca' syllables and can lose track of which vowels go where. Remembering the buried words 'multiply' and 'plic' (fold) keeps the structure clear and stops the schwa-heavy interior from collapsing.

How the word is built

• multi- (many)
• plic (fold, from Latin plicare)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)