Numerals in 80 Scripts
Notes
Here are the ways we write numbers, in 80 scripts, ancient to modern, East to West.
Most modern scripts use the decimal system, with its need for only 10 numerals, 0 through 9.
Ancient scripts tended to have glyphs for higher numbers.
Roman numerals, disappointingly, used letters: Ⅰ for 1, Ⅴ for 5, Ⅹ for 10, Ⅼ for 50, Ⅽ for 100, Ⅾ for 500 and Ⅿ for 1,000.
Aegean scripts, somewhat literally, used lines and circles: 𐄏 for 9, 𐄘 for 90, 𐄡 for 900, 𐄪 for 9,000 and 𐄳 for 90,000.
Pahawh Hmong, splendidly, has glyphs for most of the powers of 10 up to 1,000,000: 𖭐 for 1, 𖭛 for 10, 𖭜 for 100, 𖭝 for 10,000 and 𖭞 for 1,000,000.
Perhaps most magnificently, Meroitic Cursive had dozens of individual, albeit formulaic, glyphs for numbers: 𐧆 for 7, 𐧏 for 70, 𐧘 for 700, 𐧡 for 7,000, 𐧪 for 70,000 and 𐧳 for 700,000.
Sources
Unicode Data and ISO 15924 Alphabetical Code List – The Unicode Consortium – licensed under Unicode License V3
Date
First published 10 June 2026
