Etymology As an adjective, from Middle English numeral, numerall, from Latin numerālis (“pertaining to a number”), from numerus (“a number”). As a noun, via Middle French numeral.
1
A symbol that is not a word and represents a number, such as the Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3 or the Roman numerals I, V, X, L.
2
A representation of a number composed of such symbols.
Compare the numeral for the product with the original decimal numeral.1966, Robert Lee Morton, Modern Mathematics Through Discovery, page 97:
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A number word, a simple or compound word for a number often having particular grammatical attributes depending on the language.
We use the term numeral for linguistic expressions and number for meanings. For example, five is a numeral expressing the number "5" - and fifteen hundred and one thousand five hundred are different numerals expressing the same number, "1,500".2002, Laurie Bauer, Rodney Huddleston, “Lexical word-formation”, in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, page 1715:
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Card games, Games A card whose rank is a number (usually including the ace as 1).
Etymology As an adjective, from Middle English numeral, numerall, from Latin numerālis (“pertaining to a number”), from numerus (“a number”). As a noun, via Middle French numeral.
1
Of or relating to numbers; numerical.
A long train of numeral progressions.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC: