Number Words: Rules, Chart, and Examples

Number words seem simple until you have to write them fast and get every detail right. Is it twenty one or twenty-one? Forty or fourty? Do you write 105 as one hundred five or one hundred and five? This guide gives you a clean, practical reference so you can write number words correctly in essays, emails, blog posts, homework, and everyday English.

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Quick answer

Number words, also called number names, are numbers written in letters instead of digits, such as one, twenty-seven, and one hundred and five. To write them correctly, memorize 0 to 20, learn the tens from twenty to ninety, hyphenate compound numbers from 21 to 99, and build larger numbers by place value. In general writing, many style guides also recommend spelling out smaller numbers, but the exact cutoff depends on the guide and the context.

• Use unique spellings for 0 to 20.
• Use a hyphen for numbers like twenty-one, forty-four, and ninety-nine.
• Use hundred, thousand, and million based on place value.
• Stay consistent with your style guide, especially in academic or professional writing.

Quick reference table

If you also edit for length and readability, see our character count basics guide and the writing tools hub for more ways to tighten copy.

Number words chart: 0 to 20 and the tens to 100

These are the core spellings most people need again and again:

• 0 zero
• 1 one
• 2 two
• 3 three
• 4 four
• 5 five
• 6 six
• 7 seven
• 8 eight
• 9 nine
• 10 ten
• 11 eleven
• 12 twelve
• 13 thirteen
• 14 fourteen
• 15 fifteen
• 16 sixteen
• 17 seventeen
• 18 eighteen
• 19 nineteen
• 20 twenty

The main tens are twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, and one hundred. Once you know those spellings, you can form most everyday number words quickly.

How to write numbers in words step by step

1. Start with 0 to 20. These forms are mostly unique, so they are best learned directly.
2. Learn the tens. Twenty through ninety give you the base for larger two-digit numbers.
3. Hyphenate 21 to 99. Write twenty-one, thirty-six, and ninety-eight with a hyphen when the second digit is not zero.
4. Build larger numbers by place value. For 342, write three hundred and forty-two. For 5,018, write five thousand and eighteen.
5. Check your style guide. APA style generally uses words for zero through nine, while broader writing guidance often depends on whether the number can be written in one or two words.

Here are a few fast examples: 47 becomes forty-seven, 100 becomes one hundred, 219 becomes two hundred and nineteen, and 8,004 becomes eight thousand and four.

One more note: style varies by region and publisher. British English commonly uses and in whole numbers such as one hundred and five. In other contexts, you may see one hundred five. Pick the convention your teacher, brand, or style guide uses and stay consistent.

Mistakes to avoid

• Writing fourty. The standard spelling is forty.
• Skipping the hyphen. Twenty-one is correct; twenty one may be treated as an error depending on the guide.
• Using hundreds after an exact number. Write three hundred, but hundreds of people.
• Mixing styles in the same line. If a sentence compares several numbers, use a format that stays clear and consistent.
• Forgetting ordinal forms. First, second, third, and twenty-first show position, not amount.

A simple writing shortcut after you draft

If you already have a draft and the wording feels clunky after changing digits into words, QuillBot is a useful next step for polishing the sentence. It is a fit for students, marketers, and non-native writers who want cleaner phrasing without changing the main idea.

• Shorten or expand sentences to fit a target length
• Smooth awkward phrasing after number edits
• Adjust grammar and tone
• Summarize longer passages into cleaner copy

Polish number-heavy writing faster when you want a quick second pass before publishing or submitting.