16 in Roman Numerals

16 in Roman numerals at a glance

Roman numeral

XVI

Lowercase

xvi

Letters

3

Parts

X · V · I

Subtractive pairs

None

In words

sixteen

Latin name

sedecim

How XVI is built

Roman numerals are written one decimal place at a time, from the largest place to the smallest. Converting each digit of 16 separately and joining the pieces gives XVI:

Reading it back, left to right:

• X = 10 → running total 10
• V = 5 → running total 15
• I = 1 → running total 16

The rules XVI follows

• Largest to smallest. XVI uses the symbols X, V and I (3 characters in all), and the values never increase from left to right except inside a subtractive pair.
• No subtraction needed. None of the digits of 16 is a 4 or a 9, so XVI is purely additive: just add the symbol values.
• No repeats. Every symbol in XVI appears once in a row, which is why the numeral stays short.

Where you will see XVI

• The U.S. Constitution. Amendments are often cited in Roman numerals: Amendment XVI allows a federal income tax (ratified in 1913).
• Monarchs and popes. Regnal numbers use Roman numerals, as in Louis XVI, the last king of France before the monarchy fell in 1792, and Pope Benedict XVI.
• The modern Summer Games. They are officially numbered by Olympiad; the Games of the XVI Olympiad belong to 1956: Melbourne.
• Championship games. Pro football numbers its championship game with Roman numerals, starting from game I in January 1967. Game XVI was played in early 1982.
• Lists and outlines. Book chapters, acts of a play, outline headings and the preface pages of many books (in lowercase: xvi) are numbered this way.

Numbers near 16 in Roman numerals

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