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Pile vs Number - What's the difference?

pile | number | Related terms |

Pile is a related term of number.


As nouns the difference between pile and number

is that pile is diligence while number is (countable) an abstract entity used to describe quantity.

As a verb number is

to label (items) with numbers; to assign numbers to (items).

As an adjective number is

(numb).

pile

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) . Cognate with Dutch pijl, German Pfeil.

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A dart; an arrow.
  • The head of an arrow or spear.
  • A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1719
  • , edition=10th edition , year_published=1864 , author= , title= , chapter= , section=Chapter VI citation , page=68 , passage=All this time I worked very hard [...] and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour everything was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground; for I made them much bigger than I needed to have done.}}
  • (heraldiccharge) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
  • Derived terms
    * pile bridge * pile cap * pile driver * pile dwelling * pile engine * pile plank * pneumatic pile * screw pile

    Verb

    (pil)
  • To drive s into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
  • Etymology 2

    Apparently from pilus.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (usually in plural) A hemorrhoid.
  • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) pile, (pille), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1889
  • , author= , title= , volume_plain=Book II: The Fall of Harmachis , section=Chapter XI citation , isbn=1555211224 , page= , passage=I climbed through, and, standing on a pile of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me.}}
  • (figuratively, informal) A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
  • When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile''', and the annoying guy on the "no" '''pile .
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=December 29 , author=Keith Jackson , title=SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0 , work=Daily Record citation , page= , passage=And the moment it thumped into the net, Celtic’s march back to the top of the SPL pile also seemed unstoppable.}}
  • A mass formed in layers.
  • a pile of shot
  • A funeral pile; a pyre.
  • (Dryden)
  • A large building, or mass of buildings.
  • * Dryden
  • The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.
  • * 1817 , (Walter Scott), Rob Roy , II.2:
  • The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture
  • * Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved
  • It was dark when the four-wheeled cab wherein he had brought Avice from the station stood at the entrance to the pile of flats of which Pierston occupied one floor
  • A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
  • A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals, as copper and zinc, laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; — commonly called Volta’s pile, voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
  • (obsolete) The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
  • (figuratively) A list or league
  • * '>citation
  • Watch Harlequins train and you get some idea of why they are back on top of the pile going into Saturday's rerun of last season's grand final against Leicester.
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (pil)
  • To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate; to amass; — often with up; as, to pile up wood.
  • To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • To add something to a great number.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 28, author=Owen Phillips, work=BBC
  • , title= Sunderland 0-2 Blackpool , passage=But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages. }}
  • (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
  • (military) To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
  • Etymology 4

    Partly from (etyl) pil (a variant of peil, .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
  • The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
  • * (William Cowper)
  • Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile .

    number

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (obsolete)

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) An abstract entity used to describe quantity.
  • (countable) A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer
  • (countable, mathematics) A member of one of several classes: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers, complex numbers, quaternions.
  • Indicating the position of something in a list or sequence. Abbreviations: No'' or '' (in each case, sometimes written with a superscript "o", like Nº or №). The symbol "#" is also used in this manner.
  • Quantity.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The new masters and commanders , passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Number itself importeth not much in armies where the people are of weak courage.
  • A sequence of digits and letters used to register people, automobiles, and various other items.
  • (countable, informal) A telephone number.
  • * 2001 , E. Forrest Hein, The Ruach Project, Xulon Press, page 86:
  • “[...] I wonder if you could get hold of him and have him call me here at Interior. I’m in my office, do you have my number ?”
  • * 2007 , Lindsey Nicole Isham, No Sex in the City: One Virgin's Confessions on Love, Lust, Dating, and Waiting, Kregel Publications, page 111:
  • When I agreed to go surfing with him he said, “Great, can I have your number'?” Well, I don’t give my ' number to guys I don’t know.
  • (grammar) Of a word or phrase, the state of being singular, dual or plural, shown by inflection.
  • (now, rare, in the plural) Poetic metres; verses, rhymes.
  • * 1635 , (John Donne), The Triple Foole :
  • Griefe brought to numbers cannot be so fierce, / For, he tames it, that fetters it in verse.
  • (countable) A performance; especially, a single song or song and dance routine within a larger show.
  • (countable, informal) A person
  • * 1968 , Janet Burroway, The dancer from the dance: a novel, Little, Brown, page 40:
  • I laughed. "Don't doubt that. She's a saucy little number ."
  • * 1988 , Erica Jong, Serenissima, Dell, page 214:
  • "Signorina Jessica," says the maid, a saucy little number , "your father has gone to his prayers and demands that you come to the synagogue at once [...]"
  • * 2005 , Denise A. Agnew, Kate Hill & Arianna Hart, By Honor Bound, Ellora's Cave Publishing, page 207:
  • He had to focus on the mission, staying alive and getting out, not on the sexy number rubbing up against him.
  • (countable, informal) An item of clothing, particularly a stylish one
  • * 2007 , Cesca Martin, Agony Angel: So You Think You've Got Problems..., Troubador Publishing Ltd, page 134:
  • The trouble was I was wearing my backless glittering number from the night before underneath, so unless I could persuade the office it was National Fancy Dress Day I was doomed to sweat profusely in bottle blue.
  • * 2007 , Lorelei James, Running with the Devil, Samhain Publishing, Ltd, page 46:
  • "I doubt the sexy number you wore earlier tonight fell from the sky."
  • (slang, chiefly, US) A marijuana cigarette, or joint; also, a quantity of marijuana bought form a dealer.
  • * 2009 , (Thomas Pynchon), Inherent Vice , Vintage 2010, page 12:
  • Back at his place again, Doc rolled a number , put on a late movie, found an old T-shirt, and sat tearing it up into short strips
  • (dated) An issue of a periodical publication.
  • the latest number of a magazine
    Synonyms
    * (mathematical number) scalar
    Hyponyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * abundant number * algebraic number * binary number * cardinal number * complex number * decimal number * deficient number * do a number on * have someone's number * hexadecimal number * house number * hyperreal number * hypercomplex number * imaginary number * irrational number * meandric number * natural number * nice round number * number-cruncher * number-crunching * number field * number line * number one * number two * number theory * numberless * ordinal number * opposite number * perfect number * phone number * prime number * rational number * real number * round number * serial number * surreal number * take a number * telephone number * transcendental number * transfinite number * whole number * without number * (number)
    See also
    * (grammatical numbers) singular,? dual,? trial,? quadral,? paucal,? plural

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To label (items) with numbers; to assign numbers to (items).
  • Number the baskets so that we can find them easily.
  • To total or count; to amount to.
  • I don’t know how many books are in the library, but they must number in the thousands.
    Derived terms
    * number among

    See also

    *

    Etymology 2

    From numb + .

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (numb)