amount
Americannoun
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the sum total of two or more quantities or sums; aggregate.
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the sum of the principal and interest of a loan.
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quantity; measure.
a great amount of resistance.
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the full effect, value, or significance.
verb (used without object)
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to total; add (usually followed byto ).
The repair bill amounts to $300.
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to reach, extend, or be equal in number, quantity, effect, etc.; be equivalent (usually followed byto ).
It is stated differently but amounts to the same thing.
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to develop into; become (usually followed byto ).
With his intelligence, he should amount to something when he grows up.
noun
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extent; quantity; supply
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the total of two or more quantities; sum
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the full value, effect, or significance of something
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a principal sum plus the interest on it, as in a loan
verb
Usage
The use of a plural noun after amount of (an amount of bananas; the amount of refugees ) should be avoided: a quantity of bananas; the number of refugees
Commonly Confused
The traditional distinction between amount and number is that amount is used with mass or uncountable nouns ( the amount of paperwork; the amount of energy ) and number with countable nouns ( a number of songs; a number of days ). Although objected to, the use of amount instead of number with countable nouns occurs in both speech and writing, especially when the noun can be considered as a unit or group ( the amount of people present; the amount of weapons ) or when it refers to money ( the amount of dollars paid; the amount of pennies in the till ).
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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amountsimple
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amountssimple
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have amountedperfect
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has amountedperfect
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am amountingprogressive
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are amountingprogressive
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is amountingprogressive
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have been amountingperfect progressive
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has been amountingperfect progressive
Past
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amountedsimple
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had amountedperfect
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was amountingprogressive
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were amountingprogressive
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had been amountingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of amount
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English verb amounten, amunten, from Anglo-French amo(u)nter, amunter, Old French amonter literally, “to go up, ascend,” probably a- + monter; noun use of verb from early 18th century; see a- 5, mount 1
Explanation
An amount is a number, or quantity, of something. If you're surprised by the amount of work you have to do at your new job, you probably didn't expect such a long list of tasks. You might complain about the amount of time it takes for the shoes you bought to arrive: amount here means the number of days before you can wear them. Amount is also a verb, meaning "add up to," like when you hope the tips you earn will amount to more than minimum wage. This meaning came before the noun amount, from the now obsolete definition, "to mount a horse," from the Old French amonter, "upward."
Vocabulary lists containing amount
Measurement and Data, List 1
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"How Do We Use Water?"
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Measurement and Data
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Draper, who withdrew with a long-term arm injury, said he felt the amount of injuries suffered by leading players is "pretty worrying".
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
First Amendment lawyers and newsrooms say the actions amount to an attempt to chill journalists and their sources.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Treasury index fund while shorting an equivalent U.S. dollar amount of a high-yield bond fund.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
Most cases are mild and amount to little more than a cough, fever, and runny nose.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
“Think the same amount of thinking you were doing before.”
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
Some companies didn’t disclose dollar figures for each individual perk; reporters generally categorized these aggregate amounts in “other.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
The only comparable alternative would involve sending spacecraft directly to another star, an undertaking that would require enormous amounts of time and money.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026
Exact net worths are impossible to pin down, given that candidates are required to list their assets in broad ranges, not exact dollar amounts.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
High thread density refers to the ability to run massive amounts of independent tasks at the same time on a single chip.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
Hoyle also realized that if stars imploded they would liberate huge amounts of heat–100 million degrees or more, enough to begin to generate the heavier elements in a process known as nucleosynthesis.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Overall, the hikes amounted to an average increase of about 8% or about $0.62 an item, according to website Mickey Visit, which tracks park price bumps.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
TotalEnergies said in a statement that net profit amounted to $5.4 billion in the period from April to June, up from $2.7 billion in the same period a year earlier.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
When I was a kid, I always wondered why that happened, and the only explanation adults could provide amounted to, “Because.”
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Analysts project that Alphabet’s capital expenditures amounted to $45 billion for the second quarter.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
His bosses, however, were adamant that the article amounted to a security breach.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
The note and other evidence persuaded an appeals court in 2024 to order Chey to give his ex-wife 35% of his assets, amounting to nearly $1 billion at the time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
As of July 8, ConserveOhio has collected more than 105,000 signatures, amounting to 25% of the 420,142 required.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
In the killings that occurred between January and June 26, only 16 indictments were filed, amounting to just 12.3 percent of cases, according to the Abraham Initiatives.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
In the list of MPs' interests, Farage declared that the payment from Direct Bullion was for work amounting to an estimated four hours per month across a three-month period.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
What the upstate union rep had told me years earlier about an officer’s career amounting to “a life sentence in eight-hour shifts” seemed to be encapsulated in that big red-bound ledger.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
