Isopsephy (iso meaning "equal" and psephos meaning "pebble") is the Greek word for the practice of adding up the number values of the letters in a word to form a single number. The early Greeks used pebbles arranged in patterns to learn arithmetic and geometry. A Latin word for "pebbles" is "calculi", the origin of the word "calculate."

Isopsephy is related to gematria, the same practice using Hebrew letters, and the ancient number systems of many other peoples (for the Arabic-alphabet version, see Abjad numerals). A Gematria of Latin-script languages was also popular in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and indeed its legacy remains in Masonic symbolism today ^*.

Bibliography

• The Greek Qabalah: Alphabetical Mysticism and Numerology in the Ancient World, Kieren Barry, Samuel Weiser, 1999. ISBN 1578631106

See also

• theomatics

External links

• Greek Gematria/Isopsephia Calculator - Requires Flash 8 or greater - Also Accepts Unicode Greek letters and will add them up for you
• Greek Isopsephia

Numerology