highly composite number

Meanings

1. A positive integer that has more divisors than any smaller positive integer.
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see highly, composite number; A positive integer that has a relatively large number of divisors.

Etymology

Coined by Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in 1915, although it has been suggested that Plato may have known of the concept, since he specified 5040 (a highly composite number) as the ideal number of citizens in a city.