by the numbers in English

Audio: en-au-by the numbers.ogg

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Etymology: The origin of this phrase goes back to the American Revolutionary War where a book containing numbered positions for rifle and bayonet practice was used to train soldiers. In the book, each diagram was numbered. Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} by the numbers, {{en-prep phrase}} by the numbers

Alternative forms

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{
  "etymology_text": "The origin of this phrase goes back to the American Revolutionary War where a book containing numbered positions for rifle and bayonet practice was used to train soldiers. In the book, each diagram was numbered.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "by the numbers",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "by the numbers",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "exactly, precisely, or in a formulaic way."
      ],
      "id": "en-by_the_numbers-en-prep_phrase-4w7-Inov",
      "links": [
        [
          "exactly",
          "exactly"
        ],
        [
          "precisely",
          "precisely"
        ],
        [
          "formulaic",
          "formulaic"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) exactly, precisely, or in a formulaic way."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "paint-by-numbers"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "by the book"
        },
        {
          "word": "by numbers"
        },
        {
          "english": "as adjective",
          "word": "by-the-numbers"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-by the numbers.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/60/En-au-by_the_numbers.ogg/En-au-by_the_numbers.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/En-au-by_the_numbers.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "by the numbers"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "etymology_text": "The origin of this phrase goes back to the American Revolutionary War where a book containing numbered positions for rifle and bayonet practice was used to train soldiers. In the book, each diagram was numbered.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "by the numbers",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "by the numbers",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "paint-by-numbers"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "exactly, precisely, or in a formulaic way."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "exactly",
          "exactly"
        ],
        [
          "precisely",
          "precisely"
        ],
        [
          "formulaic",
          "formulaic"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) exactly, precisely, or in a formulaic way."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "by the book"
        },
        {
          "word": "by numbers"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-by the numbers.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/60/En-au-by_the_numbers.ogg/En-au-by_the_numbers.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/En-au-by_the_numbers.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "english": "as adjective",
      "word": "by-the-numbers"
    }
  ],
  "word": "by the numbers"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (9a96ef4 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"by the numbers" meaning in English

Prepositional phrase

Alternative forms