N
:N: /N/ quant. 1. A large and indeterminate number of objects: "There
were N bugs in that crock!" Also used in its original sense of a
variable name: "This crock has N bugs, as N goes to infinity." (The true
number of bugs is always at least N + 1; see {Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology}
.) 2. A variable whose value is inherited from the
current context. For example, when a meal is being ordered at a
restaurant, N may be understood to mean however many people there are at
the table. From the remark "We'd like to order N wonton soups and a
family dinner for N - 1" you can deduce that one person at the table
wants to eat only soup, even though you don't know how many people there
are (see great-wall
. 3. `Nth': adj. The ordinal counterpart of N,
senses 1 and 2. "Now for the Nth and last time..." In the specific
context "Nth-year grad student", N is generally assumed to be at least
4, and is usually 5 or more (see tenured graduate student
. See also
random numbers
}, two-to-the-N
Jargon File Version 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001 =
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