Roman Numerals Chart: 1–100, 1–1000, Years and Printables

Roman numerals 1–100 chart

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Roman numeral symbols

Seven letters make every Roman numeral. They alternate between ones and fives: 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1,000.

The six subtractive pairs

When a smaller symbol comes before a larger one it is subtracted. Only these six pairs exist:

• IV = 4
• IX = 9
• XL = 40
• XC = 90
• CD = 400
• CM = 900

To remember the order I-V-X-L-C-D-M, try “I Value Xylophones Like Cows Do Milk”.

Roman numerals 1–20 (and lowercase i–xx)

Large type for early grades. The lowercase column is the style used to number the front pages of books, such as a preface on page iii or iv.

Clock numerals I to XII

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Roman numerals 1–1000

Thousands up to 3,999

Build any number up to 3,999

Split the number into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones, look each part up in this table, and write the pieces left to right. That is the whole method.

The 7 rules of Roman numerals

1. Seven symbols make every numeral. I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, M = 1,000. There are no other symbols.Right: MDCLXVI = 1,666
2. Write them from largest to smallest and add. LXXVII = 50 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 1 + 1 = 77.Right: VIII = 8, LXXVII = 77, MMXXVI = 2,026
3. A smaller symbol written before a larger one is subtracted. IV = 5 − 1 = 4; XC = 100 − 10 = 90.Right: IV = 4, IX = 9, XC = 90
4. Only I, X and C subtract, and only from the next two larger symbols. That gives exactly six pairs: IV, IX, XL, XC, CD, CM. So 49 is XLIX (40 + 9), not IL.Right: XLIX = 49, XCIX = 99, CMXCIX = 999Wrong: IL, IC, IM, VX
5. I, X, C and M repeat up to three times in a row; V, L and D never repeat. Three is III, but four is IV; thirty is XXX, but forty is XL.Right: III = 3, XL = 40, CCC = 300Wrong: IIII, XXXX, VV
6. There is no zero and no negative numbers, and the standard numerals are whole numbers only. Roman numerals count from I (one). There is no symbol for zero: around AD 725 the scholar Bede and his colleagues wrote the Latin word nulla ("none"), or just the letter N, for zero in their calculation tables, but it never became part of the everyday system. The Romans did write fractions, but in a separate base-12 notation: S (semis) for one half and a dot for each twelfth (uncia).
7. The standard form stops at 3,999. 3,999 is MMMCMXCIX. Larger numbers need a bar on top, which multiplies by 1,000: 4,000 is IV with a bar over it.Right: MMMCMXCIX = 3,999Wrong: MMMM

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How to read a Roman numeral

Read left to right. First spot the subtractive pairs (IV, IX, XL, XC, CD, CM) and treat each pair as one value, then add everything up. Here is MCMLXXVII, the kind of date you see at the end of film credits:

So MCMLXXVII is 1977, the year the first Star Wars film was released. The shortcut for copyright years: a numeral starting MCM… is in the 1900s, and one starting MM… is in the 2000s.

Years in Roman numerals: 1900–2099

Big numbers: 4,000 and above

Standard numerals stop at 3,999 (MMMCMXCIX). For larger numbers the notation taught today is the vinculum: a bar over a numeral multiplies it by 1,000. So 4,000 is IV with a bar over it. Writers over the centuries used several other systems for big numbers, and none became universal, so treat the table below as the modern convention. MMMM for 4,000 turns up informally but is not standard.

Where you still see Roman numerals

Clock faces

Many clocks write four as IIII rather than IV. The Great Clock of Westminster (Big Ben) is a famous exception that uses IV. Both styles are shown on the 1–20 sheet above.

The Super Bowl

The first Super Bowl was played in January 1967 and there has been one every year since, so Super Bowl n was played in 1966 + n: Super Bowl LX (60) was played in 2026. Roman numerals were first used for Super Bowl V in 1971; the first four games were numbered later. Super Bowl 50 in 2016 was branded with Arabic numerals instead of L, and the numerals came back the next year with Super Bowl LI.

The Olympic Games

Summer Games are numbered by Olympiad and Winter Games by their own count: Paris 2024 was the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, Milano Cortina 2026 the XXV Olympic Winter Games, and Los Angeles 2028 will be the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad.

Monarchs and popes

Rulers who share a name are numbered in order: Elizabeth II, Charles III, Louis XIV of France, and Pope Leo XIV, elected in 2025.

Books, outlines, music and chemistry

• Front matter such as a preface is often numbered in lowercase (i, ii, iii) before page 1 of the main text.
• Formal outlines label top-level points I, II, III, then A, B, C, then 1, 2, 3, then a, b, c.
• In music, chords are numbered by the scale note they are built on: in C major the I, IV and V chords are C, F and G. Lowercase marks minor chords, such as ii and vi.
• In chemistry, a numeral gives an element's oxidation state: iron(III) oxide, Fe₂O₃, contains iron in the +3 state.

Reading Roman numerals in old documents

Family historians and archivists meet numerals that break the modern rules. Scribes often wrote them in lowercase, ended a run of i's with a j (iij = 3, vj = 6, viij = 8), and freely used additive forms such as iiij for 4 or MCCCCLXXXX for 1490 (today MCDXC). The UK National Archives has a guide to Roman numerals in historical documents.

Roman numerals quiz and worksheets

Answer on screen and press “Check my answers”, or print the sheet: questions on page 1, the answer key on page 2. “New version” shuffles a fresh set. To get a printed sheet back later, choose the same sheet type and level and type the version number from the sheet into the Version box.

Typing and using Roman numerals

• Plain capital letters are the best choice almost everywhere: every font has them, and they search, copy and sort like any other text.
• Unicode also has single-character numerals from U+2160 to U+2188, such as Ⅻ (U+216B) for twelve. They exist mainly for compatibility with older character sets.
• CSS and HTML number lists for you: list-style-type: upper-roman (or lower-roman), or <ol type="I">.
• Excel and Google Sheets convert with =ROMAN(2026), which returns MMXXVI, and =ARABIC("MMXXVI"), which returns 2026.