One half
irreducible fraction
One half is the multiplicative inverse of 2. It is an irreducible fraction with a numerator of 1 and a denominator of 2. It often appears in mathematical equations, recipes and measurements.
As a word
One half is one of the few fractions which are commonly expressed in natural languages by suppletion rather than regular derivation: the word for "half" in various languages is etymologically unrelated to their word for "two". In English, for example, other small fractions, such as "sixth" and "eleventh", are derived from the corresponding number word.
A half can also be said to be one part of something divided into two equal parts. It is acceptable to write one half as a hyphenated word, one-half.
Mathematics
One half is the rational number that lies midway between 0 and 1 on the number line. Multiplication by one half is equivalent to division by two, or "halving"; conversely, division by one half is equivalent to multiplication by two, or "doubling".
A number raised to the power of one half is equal to its square root.
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This entry incorporates text from “One half” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.