A number that is very large (but not infinite) such as 1,000,000,000,000,000 could be called huge, enormous, large, big, gigantic, etc.
A number that is very small such as 0.000000001 could be called little, small, infinitesimal, minuscule, etc.
But what is a word that can describe a number that is large in the negative, such as -1,000,000,000,000,000?
If we were talking about dates, I might use the word early — but is there a term that applies to numbers generically?
Best Answer
Note that large does not mean large, positive. If a number X is large, then -X is also large. Furthermore -0.00...1 is also infinitesimal.
So, no only isn't there a single word that means large, negative, but, to begin with, there also isn't one which means large, positive!
In computing, the widely used term bignum refers to any one of various data representations for arbitrary precision integers, which are not confined to machine-imposed sizes like 32 or 64 bits. Of course, bignums can be positive or negative. That is another example which shows that big is understood to refer to magnitude, not to positive displacement from zero.
Maybe you can coin some new ones to fill the void, perhaps by portmanteau: posinormous, plusantic, negormous, negantic. These may not be in the English language now, but if you succeed in popularizing them, they will be. They do exhibit English phonology and morphology.
A less radical approach would be to use some standard prefix or suffix: supernegative and superpositive. Even if nobody uses these words, the meaning is clear. In English, we can improvise new words that are not listed in dictionaries, yet which have a more or less self-evident meaning, by combining existing words with standard prefixes and suffixes. For instance, dictionaries do not have to list every single possible word that is formed by [adjective] + ness.