number sign

plural number signs

1. USThe character # used to represent the word number.

   The number sign (#) is used when the number to be printed represents cents only, and is designed to prevent any one from placing a false figure in the dollar position on the check.

   1912, United States. Patent Office, Specifications and Drawings of Patents Issued from the United States Patent Office, Volume 466, Part 2, Issues 99-988, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 4919

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   367. Characters.—The upper case of the first row of keys contains characters. You will have frequent occasion to use the quotation mark or ditto ("), the underscore (_), the apostrophe ('), parenthesis left [(] and right [)], and the hyphen (-). The number sign (#), the dollar sign ($), percent sign (%), the ampersand or "and" sign (&), and the asterisk (*) are mostly used in reports and tabulating work.

   1942, United States. War Department, Technical Manual

   New material which has been inserted on the page is indicated by the number sign (#). Where more than one or two lines have been inserted in consecutive sequence the number sign (#) appears above and below the material inserted rather than appearing on each individual line of the group. In cases where an entirely new listing is included the number sign (#) appears in the first line of the page. The appearance of three number signs (###) indicates the omission of material from that page.

   1942, United States Civil Service Commission, Operations Manual for Placement of Women and Physically Handicapped, U.S. Government Printing Office

   Synonyms: hash sign, pound sign, crunch, hash, hash mark /hashmark, hash sign, hashtag, octothorpe /octothorn