| English Ordinal | Full Reduction | Reverse Ordinal | Reverse Full Reduction |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| English Ordinal | Full Reduction |
| 0 | 0 |
| Reverse Ordinal | Reverse Full Reduction |
| 0 | 0 |
| English Ordinal | ||||||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| English Ordinal | ||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| h | i | j | k | l | m | n |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| o | p | q | r | s | t | u |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| v | w | x | y | z | ||
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | ||
Gematria is an alphanumeric code of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase based on its letters. A single word can yield multiple values depending on the cipher used.
A type of gematria system ('Aru') was employed by the ancient Babylonian culture but, because their writing script was logographic, the numerical assignations they made were to whole words. The value of these words were assigned in an entirely arbitrary manner and correspondences were made through tables. This practice was very different from the gematria systems used by Hebrew and Greek cultures, which used alphabetic writing scripts. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria, Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria. There is currently no academic consensus over whether Hebrew gematria or Greek isopsephy was used first.
A well-known example of Hebrew gematria is the word חי chai ("alive"), which is composed of two letters that (using the assignments in the Mispar gadol table shown below) add up to 18. This has made 18 a "lucky number" among the Jewish people. Gifts of money in multiples of 18 are very popular.
