mantissa noun. [man'tɪsǝ] M17.
[Latin mantis(s)a makeweight, perh. from Etruscan.]
1. An addition of comparatively small importance, esp. to a text or discourse. M-L17.

2. Math.
a. The part of a logarithm after the decimal point. M19.
b. The number or quantity to which an exponent is appended; spec. in Computing, a number (usu. of a fixed number of digits) which is multiplied by a specified power of a base to represent any number by floating-point representation. M20.

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