Editing Numero sign (section)

{{short description|Typographic abbreviation of the word "number(s)"}}
{{Redirect|No.||No (disambiguation){{!}}No}}
{{Distinguish|text=the [[number sign]] (''#'')}}
{{Infobox symbol
|mark={{not a typo|№}}
|unicode = {{unichar|2116|html=}}
|see also = {{unichar|0023|nlink=}}
|different from=
}}

The '''numero sign''' or '''numero symbol''', '''{{not a typo|№}}''' (also represented as '''Nº''', '''No̱''', '''No.''', or '''no.'''),<ref>{{cite web|title=no. or No.|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/no.|work=[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin Company]]|date=2009|access-date=May 13, 2013}}</ref><ref name=Concise>{{cite encyclopedia|title = The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English | year = 2008 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780199548415}}</ref> is a [[Typography|typographic]] abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating [[Ordinal numeral|ordinal numeration]], especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, the written long-form of the address "Number 29 Acacia Road" is shortened to "№ 29 Acacia Rd", yet both forms are spoken long.

Typographically, the numero sign combines as a single [[Orthographic ligature|ligature]] the uppercase Latin letter {{angbr|N}} with a usually superscript lowercase [[O|letter {{angbr|o}}]], sometimes underlined, resembling the masculine [[ordinal indicator]] {{angbr|º}}. The ligature has a [[code point]] in [[Unicode]] as a [[precomposed character]], {{unichar|2116}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2100.pdf |title=Letterlike Symbols |publisher=[[Unicode Consortium]]}}</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' derives the numero sign from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|numero}}, the [[Ablative case|ablative]] form of {{lang|la|numerus}} ("number", with the ablative denotations of "by the number, with the number"). In [[Romance languages]], the numero sign is understood as an abbreviation of the word for "number", e.g. Italian {{lang|it|numero}}, French {{lang|fr|numéro}}, and Portuguese and Spanish {{lang|roa-039|número}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/nox?view=uk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060317013723/http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/nox?view=uk|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 17, 2006|title=Oxford Dictionaries – Dictionary, Thesaurus, & Grammar|work=askoxford.com}}</ref>

This article describes other typographical abbreviations for "number" in different languages, in addition to the numero sign proper.