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In the definition of fields on wikipedia, it says:

A field is therefore an algebraic structure $\langle \Bbb F, +, \cdot , −, ^{−1}, 0, 1\rangle$; of type $\langle 2, 2, 1, 1, 0, 0\rangle$, consisting of two abelian groups...

I understand that a field is a set containing a set of numbers, some operations, and some identities, but what exactly does "type" mean in this context?

user165419
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    The second tuple lists the arity (no. of args) of each operation (constants viewed as a nullary op). – Bill Dubuque Jul 20 '14 at 23:59
  • @BillDubuque Ah. That actually occurred to me for a second, but then I thought "but subtraction is a binary operation so that can't be it". I just realized that "$-$" might instead mean negation. Thanks. – user165419 Jul 21 '14 at 00:02

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