26 (twenty-six) is the natural number following 25 and preceding 27.
In mathematics
thumb|Poster designed to depict the speciality of the number 2626 is a composite number. 26 is also a telephone number, specifically, the number of ways of connecting 5 points with pairwise connections.
Group Theory
There are 26 sporadic groups.
The 26-dimensional Lorentzian unimodular lattice II<sub>25,1</sub> plays a significant role in sphere packing problems and the classification of finite simple groups.
In religion
- 26 is the gematric number, being the sum of the Hebrew characters () being the name of the god of Israel – YHWH (Yahweh). 26 is also the gematric number for GOD with the corresponding substitutions in English (i.e. A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on)
- In the Tenrikyo religion of Japan, 26 is frequently used, since it marks the lunar calendar date of its founder Nakayama Miki's first divine revelation and also her death.
In science
- Iron is the 26th element in the periodic table.
- Messier 26 is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Scutum.
- NGC 26 is a spiral galaxy in the Pegasus constellation.
- The maximum time difference between two time zones is 26 hours.
In other fields
- 26 is the number of letters in the Latin alphabet.