Meanings
- historicaluncountablemathematicsSynonym of pi, particularly the 35-decimal approximation discovered by Ludolph van Ceulen
1 more example
Pi... came to be called the Ludolphian number, after Ludolph van Ceulen, a German mathematician who approximated it to thirty-five decimal places... a calculation that took Ludolph most of his life to accomplish, and gave him such satisfaction that he had the digits engraved on his tombstone... the stone vanished, possibly to be turned into a sidewalk slab. Somewhere in Leiden, people may be walking over Ludolph's digits.
1992 March 2, Richard Preston, “The Mountains of Pi”, in The New YorkerSynonyms: pi, particularly the 35-decimal approximation discovered by Ludolph van Ceulen
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of pi, particularly the 35-decimal approximation discovered by Ludolph van Ceulen
Origin
From Ludolph van Ceulen, a German mathematician who improved on previous approximations of pi.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Ludolphian number. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Ludolphian%20number
“Ludolphian number.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Ludolphian%20number. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Ludolphian number,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Ludolphian%20number.
Source: Ludolphian number on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.