What is a multiple?
Children count in multiples from Year 1. Year 5 names multiples and factors, and Year 6 finds common multiples. Below: what it means, a worked example, the mistake to watch for and an 11+ question.
The answer
A multiple of a number is what you get when you multiply it by a whole number: the answers in its times table.
What it means
The multiples of 6 are 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and so on. They never stop: 6 × 100 = 600 is a multiple of 6 too.
A common multiple of two numbers is in both of their times tables. The smallest one is the lowest common multiple.
If 6 is a factor of 30, then 30 is a multiple of 6. Factors and multiples are two ways of describing the same fact.
A worked example
Is 84 a multiple of 7?
- Divide: 84 ÷ 7 = 12, with nothing left over.
- So 7 × 12 = 84, and 84 is a multiple of 7.
The common mistake
Thinking multiples stop at 12 ×. Times tables at school stop at 12, but multiples carry on for ever: 7 × 25 = 175 is a multiple of 7.
How it comes up in the 11+
Buses leave every 6 minutes and trams every 8 minutes. Both leave together at 9:00. When do they next leave together?
Answer: 9:24
- Multiples of 6: 6, 12, 18, 24, 30
- Multiples of 8: 8, 16, 24, 32
- The lowest common multiple is 24, so they next leave together 24 minutes after 9:00, at 9:24.
Related words and practice
More maths words
Questions parents ask
Is a number a multiple of itself?
Yes. 1 × 6 = 6, so 6 is the first multiple of 6.
Is 0 a multiple of every number?
Mathematically, yes, because any number × 0 = 0. But primary schools and 11+ questions list multiples starting from the number itself: 6, 12, 18 and so on.
Knowing the words is half of an 11+ maths question
11+ papers use maths vocabulary without explaining it. The free diagnostic checks maths, English and both kinds of reasoning, and shows what to practise next. No card is required.