Numero sign

The numero sign or numero symbol, № (also represented as Nº, No̱, No. or no.),^[1][2] is a typographic abbreviation of the word number(s) indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, the written long-form of the address "Number 29 Acacia Road" is shortened to "№ 29 Acacia Rd", yet both forms are spoken long.

Typographically, the numero sign combines as a single ligature the uppercase Latin letter ⟨N⟩ with a usually superscript lowercase letter ⟨o⟩, sometimes underlined, resembling the masculine ordinal indicator ⟨º⟩. The ligature has a code point in Unicode as a precomposed character, U+2116 № NUMERO SIGN.^[3]

The Oxford English Dictionary derives the numero sign from Latin numero, the ablative form of numerus ("number", with the ablative denotations of "by the number, with the number"). In Romance languages, the numero sign is understood as an abbreviation of the word for "number", e.g. Italian numero, French numéro, and Portuguese and Spanish número.^[4]

This article describes other typographical abbreviations for "number" in different languages, in addition to the numero sign proper.