Umpteen

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Umpteen is a slang term for an unspecified but large number, used in a humorous fashion or to imply that it is not worth the effort to pin down the actual figure. Generally, it refers to the number of times something has happened, rather than to a number of objects.

Despite the -teen ending, which would seem to indicate that it lies between 12 and 20, umpteen is often assumed to be much larger than this—if it ever could be pinned down.

The word is apparently derived from the slang ump(ty), a dash in Morse code (of imitative origin), plus -teen. A derived term using the same root is umpty-ump.

1 Umpteen and n
2 Popular culture
3 Other slang numbers
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Umpteen and n

Umpteen shares a relationship with n, which in mathematics means any natural number. The terms umpteenth and nth both mean repeated for an unknown number of times.

[edit] Popular culture

The cleaning material brand Mr. Sheen uses the term in the slogan, "Mr. Sheen shines umpteen things clean!".

[edit] Other slang numbers

A number of other tongue-in-cheek slang terms connote even larger, but equally uncertain, numbers. Most are constructed by placing a letter or nonsense syllable before the suffix -illion — e.g., 'zillion.