sexagesimal
A fraction involving division by 60A fraction involving division by 60; a sixtieth part of something.
» A sexagesimal system was used in Babylonia. Therefore an hour has sixty minutes and a day has twenty-four hours.
ytugen · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesA fraction involving division by 60; a sixtieth part of something.
Decimals are actually less convenient than sexagesimals for working with most common fractions.
A base-60 number.
Babylonian mathematics was computed in sexagesimals.
Examples
1 sentencesA sexagesimal system was used in Babylonia. Therefore an hour has sixty minutes and a day has twenty-four hours.
Origin
From Medieval Latin sexagesimalis, from sexāgēsimus (“sixtieth”) + -ālis (“-al”), from sexFrom Medieval Latin sexagesimalis, from sexāgēsimus (“sixtieth”) + -ālis (“-al”), from sexāgintā (“sixty”). Cognate with sexagenary and sexagenarian. Cf. sextal.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.