Roman numerals are becoming increasingly rare, but they still have the following uses:
- names of rulers, aristocrats, and the names of ships, racing cars and space vehicles:
- Charles IV
- Pius XII
- Bluenose II
- Saturn V
- numbers of volumes, chapters, tables, plates, acts and other divisions of a book or play (now often replaced with Arabic numerals):
- Psalm XXIII
- Volume XII
- Appendix III
- Act II, Scene iii (act number in upper case, scene number in lower case) Iliad xi.26
- Government of Canada Statutes:
- Schedule IV
- Part III
- years, centuries and recurring events of major importance:
- MCMLXIV (in very formal contexts)
- XIX century (or 19th century)
- XXIII Olympiad
Do not use ordinal forms (st, nd, th, etc.) with Roman numerals.
Lower-case Roman numerals may be used for page numbers in preliminary matter (preface, foreword, table of contents, etc.), subclauses and subordinate classifications in a series.
- page xi of the Preface
Note that a bar over a letter in a Roman numeral multiplies its value by 1000:
- _
D = 500 000 - _
V = 5000
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