Tutorial

Initial Search / Regular Format

Enter a number in the entry field on the home page that you would like to convert to a word or a series of words. Use only the ten digits — 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Do not use commas, currency symbols, hyphens, or any other non-digit character.

Clicking the Submit button will produce a list of commonly used words, terms, phrases, expressions, or proper names at the bottom of the home page. The answers produced by clicking the Submit button are referred to as “the initial search” or “the regular format.” For an explanation of how the answers are derived by The Number Thesaurus, see Introduction. 

Additional Searches and Formats

You may want to select another format from the drop down menu after the initial search returns words and phrases in the regular format. For example, if you entered a seven-digit telephone number of 2172142, The Number Thesaurus would return the following message:

This message indicates that The Number Thesaurus contains no single word and no single term, phrase, expression, or proper name (collectively referred to as “phrases”) into which the seven-digit number 2172142 can be converted. This is not unusual because there are relatively few words and phrases in the database of The Number Thesaurus (approximately 10,000 at this time) with exactly seven significant consonant sounds.

By selecting a format from the Search formats drop down menu on the home page, the chances of finding matching words and phrases improve dramatically. For example, after initially submitting the number 2172142 and receiving the No Words Found message, further searches using the Search formats drop down menu can be conducted. The number of additional formats will vary according to the length of the number submitted in the initial search. There will always be a minimum of five additional formats. Four of the additional formats are described as follows:

The fifth format is actually a category of formats, and it described as the Two-Word format.

Two-Word Format

A Two-Word format returns two words or phrases instead of one word or phrase that is returned in the regular format of the initial search. When you enter a number (say, 2172142) and click Submit for the first time, the Two-Word formats in the Search formats drop down box will become active. Until a number has been submitted for the first time by clicking the Submit button, the system has no means of determining the number of digits contained in the number to be submitted. When the number is submitted for the initial search, the system counts the number of digits and determines the number of Two-Word formats that are available for additional searching opportunities.

In the seven-digit example of 2172142, the following Two-Word formats appear in the drop down box in the order shown:

Each format, except the first one, returns two columns of words. The first format (xxxxxxx in this case) is equivalent to the regular format generated by the initial search. The regular format is provided on this menu merely as a convenience for reviewing the results of the initial search at any point during your search through the various formats.

The second format shown above (xxx-xxxx) returns words in the first column consisting of three significant consonant sounds that match the first three digits of the seven-digit number (217 in this example). The second column contains words consisting of four significant consonant sounds that match the last four digits (2142 in this example) of the seven-digit number.

For example, when you select the xxx-xxxx format, The Number Thesaurus will return 18 words for 217 and 14 words for 2142, including the following words:

So, if you can visualize an antique andiron, for example, then you can create an association that will help you recall the number 2172142.

Another Example
Assume that you enter the number 7375959 and click Submit. The Number Thesaurus will return the No Words Found message. If you then select the xxx-xxxx format, The Number Thesaurus will return three words for 737, but no word or phrase equivalents for 5959. Thus, it is necessary to try another format. If you select the xxxx-xxx format, The Number Thesaurus will return 4 words for 7375 and 25 words for 959, including the following words:

So, if you can visualize a comical bellboy or a chemical blowup, for example, then you can create an association that will help recall the number 7375959.

Order of Formats
In the format examples shown above, the first Two-Word format in the list is xxx-xxxx. The selection of this format as the first Two-Word format was prompted by the fact that seven-digit telephone numbers in North America consist of an exchange (three digits) followed by four additional digits. Because converting telephone numbers to words is one of the more useful applications of The Number Thesaurus, the editors decided to place this particular format at the top of the Two-Word format list for seven-digit numbers.

In the opinion of the editors, the next most useful format for a seven-digit telephone number (in the Two-Word format) is xxxx-xxx. The reason is that the number of words that match a given number decreases as the number grows in length. Thus, there are more words with four significant consonant sounds than there are with five significant consonant sounds. Said another way, the chances of creating a memorable pair of words in the Two-Word format is greater with the xxxx-xxx format than with the xx-xxxxx format or the xxxxx-xx format.

The only remaining combinations in the Two-Word format for a seven-digit number are x-xxxxxx and xxxxxx-x. The same rule mentioned above applies here as well. There will be fewer chances of finding single words or a single phrase with six significant consonant sounds than with five significant consonant sounds. Thus, the x-xxxxxx format and the xxxxxx-x format appear at the bottom of the Two-Word format list.

 The Two-Word formats follow the same ordering convention for numbers consisting of three through ten digits. That is, The Number Thesaurus supplies Two-Word formats for any number less than eleven digits in length. For example, the Two-Word formats for a ten-digit number are:

For numbers greater than ten digits in length, the Custom format selection on the drop down menu can be used to create a similar matching routine.

 Custom Format

This format allows you to create a format that best suits your needs. When you select this format, you will need to specify the format of the results in the input field immediately below the Search formats field. An example will illustrate the use of the Custom format.

Assume that you enter the seven-digit telephone number of 6214140 and click Submit. The Number Thesaurus will return the No Words Found message. Assume further that you find no combinations in the Two-Word formats that are useful. You might then elect to try the Custom format selection.  

To activate the Custom format, you open the drop down menu labeled Search formats and select Custom. You then type a series of characters consisting of the letter x and the hyphen (-) to represent the format of the answers to be returned by The Number Thesaurus.

In the example of 6214140, you could enter the following string of characters:

xxx-xx-xx

Clicking the Resubmit button produces a screen similar to the one shown below (to keep the lists short, many of the entries have been omitted):

Using the Custom format to limit the words to two and three significant consonant sounds produces a large selection of words and phrases from which to choose. One of the combinations (giant red horse) happens to form a phrase that is easily visualized and remembered.

Ignore Leading Zeroes and Ones

The Short Explanation

This format is designed to expand the utility of The Number Thesaurus with respect to telephone numbers. The concise explanation of this format is that it produces words and phrases that convert into numbers with leading digits of zeroes and ones. Because neither a seven-digit telephone number nor a ten-digit telephone number can begin with a 0 or a 1, the astute user simply ignores the leading zeroes and ones when converting the word or phrase to a telephone number.

The Long Explanation

The problem is that The Phonetic Peg Memory System was developed long before the advent of telephones and telephone numbers. In North America, the telephone system uses the numbers 2 through 9 for the beginning numbers of area codes and exchanges. Thus, there are no seven-digit phone numbers that look like 034-4396 or 167-8426. Likewise there are no 10-digit phone numbers whose area code begins with 0 or 1. The 0 and the 1 are reserved for calls to the operator, operator-assisted long distance, or direct long distance dialing.

The problem is that two of the most popular letters of the alphabet — S and T — were assigned to the number 0 and the number 1, respectively, almost 200 years ago, and they have stuck. Worse yet, the S sound includes the soft c sound and the letter Z. And the T sound includes the letter D. So, that automatically eliminates any word or phrase beginning with S, T, D, or Z and words beginning with the soft c sound (city, civil, cinder) from being used as a memory device for a telephone number.  

That is the problem, and here is the solution. The Number Thesaurus contains a look-up routine that finds matching numbers that begin with 0 and 1. It works like this: You enter a 7-digit or a 10-digit telephone number and click Submit. Assume that you initially entered a seven-digit telephone number, but you didn’t find any words or phrases that were suitable for the particular situation. You could select Ignore Leading 0’s & 1’s from the Search formats drop down box. 

This format returns words and phrases in which the leading significant consonant sound or sounds are the S sound (including Z and soft c) and/or the T sound (including D and the th sound). The Number Thesaurus automatically compensates for the fact that an extra consonant sound or sounds now appear at the beginning of the word or phrase. The example below illustrates this process.  

Assume that you initially entered the seven-digit telephone number 9270120 but didn’t find any suitable words or phrases. When you select Ignore leading 0's & 1's from the Search formats drop down box and click Resubmit, the word “steppingstones” will be returned. This phrase converts to the number 019270120, which is a nine-digit number. It is your original seven-digit number to which a “0” and a “1” have been added at the beginning to account for the letters s and t at the beginning of steppingstones. The Number Thesaurus automatically adjusts the number of significant consonant sounds in the word or phrase (from seven to nine) for the leading S and T sounds that you will ignore when converting the word or phrase back into a telephone number. 

Exact Matching v. Expanded Matching

The Number Thesaurus performs two types of matching — Exact Matching and Expanded Matching. These two formats are explained below.

 Exact Matching

This type of matching limits the results to an exact correspondence between the digits in your number and the significant consonant sounds in the words and phrases that are returned.

For example, if the number 7952 is entered, The Number Thesaurus will return the following words:

The advantage of an exact match is that no ambiguity can arise in converting the words aquaplane and goblin back to the number 7952. The disadvantage is that the number of words to work with can be somewhat limited. In some situations the Expanded Matching selection can be used to overcome such a limitation.

Expanded Matching

This type of matching expands the scope of words from which The Number Thesaurus will use to return words that meet your criteria. An example will illustrate the use of this format.

Assume that 7952 is a street address that you are attempting to remember. In this situation, it is very unlikely that this street address would be any longer than four digits. (Yes, some street addresses do fall into the 10,000 – 19,999 range, but they seldom go any higher.) To create some additional choices, you might wish to select Expanded Matching from the Search formats drop down menu.

When Resubmit is clicked, the following list of 20 words representing the number 7952 is produced: aquaplane, aquaplaned, aquaplanes, aquaplaning, cabling, cobbling, Coblenz, Copland, coupling, couplings, eggplant, eggplants, gabbling, gobbling, goblin, goblins, kibbling, Kipling, Koblenz, and quibbling.

Admittedly, there are several inflected forms in the new list. Setting those aside, the Expanded Matching selection produces the following ten new words:

 cabling, cobbling, Copland, coupling, eggplant,
gabbling, kibbling, Kipling, Koblenz, and quibbling.

These words might prove to be more usable than aquaplane and goblin in a particular situation. For example, you might select the word eggplant to associate with your friend’s address of 7952 (imagines a huge eggplant growing in your friend’s front yard). Eggplant converts to the five-digit number of 79521. However, you know that the street number consists of only four digits. Therefore, you ignore the “1” in the fifth position. The same example would apply in an office setting where internal telephone numbers can usually be dialed with four digits.

10-Digit Phone Number Format

This format is nothing more than a shortcut for a format that could otherwise be created using the Custom format. It is equivalent to choosing Custom from the drop down menu and then typing the format shown below:

xxx-xxx-xxxx

This format will return three columns of words. The first two columns will contain words and phrases consisting of three significant consonant sounds, while the third column will contain words or phrases consisting of four significant consonant sounds.

Listing this format in the drop down menu is simply a device to save time entering the custom format of xxx-xxx-xxxx.