Multiplication
![Four bags of three marbles gives twelve marbles (4 × 3 = 12).](/Images/godic/202501/09/Multiply_4_bags_3_marbles.svg3343.png")
![Multiplication can also be thought of as scaling. Here we see 2 being multiplied by 3 using scaling, giving 6 as a result](/Images/godic/202501/09/Multiply_scaling.svg3343.png")
![4 × 5 = 20, the rectangle is composed of 20 squares, having dimensions of 4 by 5.](/Images/godic/202501/09/Multiplication_scheme_4_by_53343.jpg")
![Area of a cloth 4.5m × 2.5m = 11.25m2; 4½ × 2½ = 11¼](/Images/godic/202501/09/Multiply_field_fract.svg3343.png")
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol "×", by a point "·" or by the absence of symbol) is one of the four elementary, mathematical operations of arithmetic; with the others being addition, subtraction and division.
The multiplication of whole numbers may be thought as a repeated addition; that is, the multiplication of two numbers is equivalent to adding as many copies of one of them, the multiplicand, as the value of the other one, the multiplier. Normally, the multiplier is written first and multiplicand second, though this can vary, as the distinction is not very meaningful: