Jargon Buster
Commas (numeric)
- What does this mean?
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The use of the character ‘ , ’ to separate hundreds, thousands and millions in large numbers.
These are particularly useful in increasing the speed with which such numbers can be read and understood.Hence they should be used wherever possible, e.g.£1,350,260 rather than £1350260 (see also the protocol for COMMAS below.)
- How did we get this definition?
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Big numbers (i.e. those greater than 999) can often be difficult and confusing to read.
- Related and similar definitions
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Hence, to conform to numeric best practice, commas should always be used to separate thousands and millions.
Thus not 2465 but 2,465.
And not 12567891 but 12,567,891.
See definition above.
