18 (number)

18 (eighteen) is the natural number following 17 and preceding 19.

In speech, the numbers 18 and 80 are sometimes confused. When carefully enunciated, they differ in which syllable is stressed: 18 /eɪtˈtiːn/ vs 80 /ˈeɪti/. However, in dates such as 1864, or when contrasting numbers in the teens, such as 17, 18, 19, the stress shifts to the first syllable: 18 /ˈeɪttiːn/. In some dialects, such as General American, there is little confusion because the single t sound in 80 becomes a d-like flap [ɾ], whereas the double t sound in 18 does not.

In mathematics

Eighteen is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9. Three of these divisors (3, 6 and 9) add up to 18, hence 18 is a semiperfect number. Eighteen is the first inverted square-prime of the form p·q².

It is a heptagonal number, and as the sum of the first three pentagonal numbers, it is a pentagonal pyramidal number. It is also the sum of the totient function for the first seven integers. It is the sixth lucas number.