Roman numerals chart 1 to 1000, with rules and examples

You do not need to memorise a chart of a thousand Roman numerals. You need seven symbols, four rules and one small table, and with those you can write any number up to 3,999 in seconds. This guide gives you all three, plus a chart from 1 to 50 for quick lookups and worked examples of the numbers people usually get wrong.

The seven symbols

A handy way to remember the order is the phrase “I Value Xylophones Like Cows Dig Milk”: I, V, X, L, C, D, M, from smallest to largest.

One table to build any number from 1 to 3,999

This is the only chart you really need. Every Roman numeral is just its thousands, hundreds, tens and units written one after another. Find each digit of your number in the right column and join the pieces.

Example: 1776. 1 thousand = M, 7 hundreds = DCC, 7 tens = LXX, 6 units = VI. Put them together: MDCCLXXVI. Zeros are simply skipped, so 2026 is MM + XX + VI = MMXXVI.

The four rules

1. Write from largest to smallest and add. XVI = 10 + 5 + 1 = 16.
2. A smaller symbol before a larger one is subtracted. IX = 10 − 1 = 9.
3. Only six subtractive pairs exist: IV (4), IX (9), XL (40), XC (90), CD (400) and CM (900). You can only subtract I, X or C, and only from the next two symbols up.
4. No symbol appears more than three times in a row. 4 is IV, not IIII; 40 is XL, not XXXX. V, L and D are never repeated at all.

Roman numerals 1 to 50

Tens and hundreds up to 1000

Worked examples of tricky numbers

These are the numbers people most often get wrong, usually by subtracting where the rules do not allow it, or by repeating a symbol four times:

The trick is always the same: convert one digit at a time. 1999 is 1000 + 900 + 90 + 9, so M + CM + XC + IX = MCMXCIX. Never jump straight from 1 to 1000 (MIM), because I can only be subtracted from V and X.

Where Roman numerals are still used

• Years on film credits, building cornerstones, book title pages and copyright notices.
• Monarchs and popes: Charles III, Louis XIV, Pope Leo XIV.
• Events: the Super Bowl (Super Bowl LX was played in 2026) and some Olympic Games.
• Clock faces, where 4 is often shown as IIII for visual balance.
• Outlines and chapters: lower-case numerals (i, ii, iii, iv) number the preface pages of many books.
• Tattoos and engravings, usually a meaningful date. The converter’s Dates tab formats them in day-month-year or month-day-year order.

What about zero and numbers above 3,999?

Romans had no symbol for zero, so there is no Roman numeral for 0. For numbers of 4,000 and above, a line drawn over a numeral (a vinculum) multiplies it by 1,000: V̅ is 5,000 and X̅ is 10,000. That convention is mainly seen in textbooks today, but the converter supports it up to 3,999,999.