A negative number is a number that indicates an opposite. For example:

• If a positive number is distance up, then a negative number is distance down.
• If a positive number is distance to the right, then a negative number is distance to the left.
• If a positive number is a deposit to a bank account, then a negative number is a withdrawal from that bank account.
• If a positive number is a quantity of minutes in the future, then a negative number is a quantity of minutes in the past.
• If a positive number means addition, then a negative number means subtraction.

The counting numbers (1, 2, 3, and so on) are all positive numbers. The positive numbers, negative numbers, and the number zero, taken together, are called "signed numbers" or integers.

The number zero is neither positive nor negative. Zero is its own opposite; so +0 = −0. That is, zero steps to the right is the same as zero steps to the left.

A negative number is always less than zero.