N: /N/ quant. 1. A large and indeterminate number of objects:
"There were N bugs in that crock!" Also used in its original sense
of a variable name: "This crock has N bugs, as N goes to infinity."
(The true number of bugs is always at least N + 1; see Lubarsky's
Law of Cybernetic Entomology.) 2. A variable whose value is
inherited from the current context. For example, when a meal is
being ordered at a restaurant, N may be understood to mean however
many people there are at the table. From the remark "We'd like to
order N wonton soups and a family dinner for N - 1" you can
deduce that one person at the table wants to eat only soup, even
though you don't know how many people there are (see great-wall).
3. `Nth': adj. The ordinal counterpart of N, senses 1 and 2. "Now
for the Nth and last time..." In the specific context "Nth-year grad
student", N is generally assumed to be at least 4, and is usually
5 or more (see tenured graduate student). See also random
numbers, two-to-the-N.
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