Numeral Converter: Number Words and Roman Numerals
Where Most People Start
- write a figure out in words for a cheque.
- work out what Roman numerals add up to.
- turn a written amount into digits.
Every Converter in This Family
Each page below reads one form and writes the other: a figure into Roman numerals or into words, and either of them back into a figure. Every one of them prints the working as well as the answer.
| From | To | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Roman numerals | Number to Roman Numerals |
| Number | Words | Number to Words |
| Roman numerals | Number | Roman Numerals to Number |
| Words | Number | Words to Number |
What can a numeral converter convert?
Two notations, and each one runs both ways. Words are the form a cheque, a contract or an invoice asks for, where an amount has to read cleanly and be hard to alter. Roman numerals are the form on a clock face, a chapter heading, a building date or a film credit.
Roman numerals use seven letters: I is 1, V is 5, X is 10, L is 50, C is 100, D is 500 and M is 1000. Number words work the other way round: they name a figure in English, on the short scale, with a hyphen in the compounds and the British and before the tens.
Which Converter Do I Need?
A Notation for a Value
Roman numerals and number words are notations for a value, not bases — how a positional number system works covers base 2, 8, 10 and 16.
What This Section Holds
What this section holds today, counted from the link graph rather than from memory.
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Tools linked here | 4 |
| Pages in the family | 5 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a number word converter the same as an A1Z26 cipher?
No. A number word converter reads an amount written out in English and gives the figure. A cipher turns A into 1 and B into 2, so it answers a different question about the same text, and this section has no cipher tool in it.
Is a Roman numeral a number system like binary or hexadecimal?
No. Those have a digit set and place value, so the same digit is worth more further left. Roman numerals have no symbol for zero and no place value: a symbol is worth the same wherever it stands.
Do you want a number written in words or in Roman numerals?
Words are for amounts that people read and sign for. Roman numerals are for years, chapter headings and clock faces. Each direction has its own page, and the grid above links them.