floating-point number

A number written in the form a × bᶜ, e.g. 3.75 × 10³ (a being the mantissa, b, the base and c, the exponent).

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A real number held as a pair of integers, one representing the mantissa and the other representing the exponent. The base is normally 10, 16 or 256 depending on the computing system.