quantity

American  

[kwon-ti-tee] / ˈkwɒn tɪ ti /

noun

• quantities
  plural

1. 

   a particular or indefinite amount of anything.

   a small quantity of milk;

   the ocean's vast quantity of fish.

2. an exact or specified amount or measure.

   Mix the ingredients in the quantities called for.

3. a considerable or great amount.

   to extract ore in quantity.

4. Mathematics.

   1. the property of magnitude involving comparability with other magnitudes.

   2. something having magnitude, or size, extent, amount, or the like.

   3. magnitude, size, volume, area, or length.

5. Music. the length or duration of a note.

6. Logic. the character of a proposition as singular, universal, particular, or mixed, according to the presence or absence of certain kinds of quantifiers.

7. that amount, degree, etc., in terms of which another is greater or lesser.

8. Prosody, Phonetics. the relative duration or length of a sound or a syllable, with respect to the time spent in pronouncing it; length.

9. Law. the nature of an estate as affected by its duration in time.

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quantity British  

/ ˈkwɒntɪtɪ /

noun

1. 1. a specified or definite amount, weight, number, etc

   2. ( as modifier )

      a quantity estimate

2. the aspect or property of anything that can be measured, weighed, counted, etc

3. a large or considerable amount

4. maths an entity having a magnitude that may be denoted by a numerical expression

5. physics a specified magnitude or amount; the product of a number and a unit

6. logic the characteristic of a proposition dependent on whether it is a universal or particular statement, considering all or only part of a class

7. prosody the relative duration of a syllable or the vowel in it

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quantity Scientific  

/ kwŏn′tĭ-tē /

1. Something, such as a number or symbol that represents a number, on which a mathematical operation is performed.

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quantity Idioms  

1. see unknown quantity.

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Usage

The use of a plural noun after quantity of as in a large quantity of bananas was formerly considered incorrect, but is now acceptable

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• quantities
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of quantity

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English quantite, from Old French, from Latin quantitās, from quant(us) “how much” + -itās -ity

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Explanation

Quantity tells you “how much.” If you're concerned with quantity not quality, it's more important how many you have than how good they are. If you get confused about quantity vs. quality, remember that quant is close to count. In Latin, quantus means “how great” or “how much.” When you count how many oranges are in a bowl, you know the quantity. When you count the grains of sand in a desert, you're counting a very large quantity . . . and you need a new hobby.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quantity quantities

Although the amount released by one person may seem small, the combined output of billions of people adds up to an enormous quantity.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 7, 2026

Each transaction begins with a quantity that should be checkable and checked.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

Once everything has developed some color, stir in a brown or mushroom gravy packet, a splash of stock and a generous quantity of frozen mixed vegetables.

From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026

The report sets out a three-month average quantity of the drug prescribed per head of population for each health board in Scotland, between June to August 2025.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

Regression analysis, which attempts to relate the values of quantity X to those of quantity Y, is a very important tool in statistics but is frequently misused.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

New research published in Nature Geoscience suggests that chemical reactions between rocky pebbles and the hydrogen-rich atmosphere of the young Earth could have produced enormous quantities of water.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 12, 2026

As it stands, Gerra said it’s likely there are low-level shipments of the chips going into warehouses in Asia, with some quantities waiting for Chinese customers.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2026

But the central region of Magway hosts a hardscrabble industry of domestic prospectors manning grimy derricks that squelch up crude oil in humble quantities.

From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2026

Yet the quantities their numbers express—measured in barrels, kilowatt-hours, milligrams—rest largely on trust.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

You may have been told by some pedant that over doesn’t apply to numbers, only to quantities.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

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Related Words

• abundance
• batch
• bulk
• capacity
• length
• load
• pile
• portion
• quota
• size
• sum
• variety
• volume

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