Zenzizenzizenzic facts for kids

Zenzizenzizenzic is a super long and unusual word from old math! It means the eighth power of a number. Imagine taking a number, multiplying it by itself, then doing that again and again until you've multiplied it by itself eight times. That's the eighth power!

This strange word was first used by a mathematician named Robert Recorde in his book The Whetstone of Witte, published way back in 1557. He spelled it a little differently, with a 'k' at the end: Zenzizenzizenzike.

A Look Back at Math History

You won't find Zenzizenzizenzic used in math today, except as a fun curiosity. The Oxford English Dictionary only has one example of it ever being used! It's mostly remembered because it's so unique.

The word comes from the Italian word censo, which means "squared." In old math, before we had easy ways to write powers (like x² or x³), mathematicians had to describe them using words. For example, the fourth power of a number was called the "square of a square."

The word Zenzizenzic is a shorter version of "censo di censo," which means "square of a square." This was used by the famous mathematician Leonardo of Pisa in his important book Liber Abaci from 1202.

So, if "square of a square" is the fourth power, then the "square of the square of a square" would be the eighth power! That's how we get Zenzizenzizenzic. Similarly, the sixth power was called zenzicube, meaning the "square of a cube."

Why So Many Z's?

Did you know that Zenzizenzizenzic has more 'Z's than almost any other word in the English language? It's definitely a tongue-twister!

Images for kids

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  Page from The Whetstone of Witte, 1557. Zenzizenzizenzike appears at the top of the right-hand page.

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  Table of powers, symbols, and names or descriptions from 0 to 24 by Samuel Jeake, written in 1671.