quantify
Americanverb (used with object)
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quantifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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quantified,
past participle, past
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quantifying
present participle
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to determine, indicate, or express the quantity of.
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Logic. to make explicit the quantity of (a proposition).
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to give quantity to (something regarded as having only quality).
verb
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to discover or express the quantity of
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logic to specify the quantity of (a term) by using a quantifier, such as all, some, or no
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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quantifysimple
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quantifiessimple
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have quantifiedperfect
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has quantifiedperfect
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am quantifyingprogressive
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are quantifyingprogressive
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is quantifyingprogressive
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have been quantifyingperfect progressive
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has been quantifyingperfect progressive
Past
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quantifiedsimple
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had quantifiedperfect
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was quantifyingprogressive
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were quantifyingprogressive
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had been quantifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of quantify
First recorded in 1830–40; from Medieval Latin quantificāre, equivalent to Latin quant(us) “how much” + -ificāre -ify
Compare meaning
How does quantify compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
When you quantify something, you're putting it in numbers. If you're asked to quantify the fingers on your hand, you better say five. If you like math, this word is for you: quantifying is counting or expressing something in numbers. Oddly enough quantify often comes into play when people are trying to count things that can't really be counted. When a doctor asks you to rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10, he's asking you to quantify for your pain. Michael Jordan won 6 NBA championships, but you can't quantify what made him great: his drive and determination.
Vocabulary lists containing quantify
This Week In Culture: September 5–11, 2020
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This Week In Culture: Current Events Vocab for October 31–November 6, 2020
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 35
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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:
She attributes some of the gender divide to the fact that the two demographics are often presented with different informational realities, though it is difficult to quantify.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026
Being able to quantify the lifelong impact of student debt could have an impact on how Americans think about the “return on investment” of borrowing for higher education.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
"Volcanoes work in a similar way, and my lab is trying to quantify these processes."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
It didn’t identify the facilities involved or quantify any impact on oil production or exports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
"Don't you quantify us? Break us into parts? Tabulate what features are more beautiful than others?"
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
The SEC yield quantifies the latest 30 days of a portfolio’s investment income net of expenses, annualized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
It’s a topic that has certainly been discussed, but the paper quantifies that shift, finding nonaligned countries have moved nearly one-third of total reserve portfolios away from foreign-currency claims.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
“She quantifies her work to the voters as her primary reelection strategy,” Dutson said.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
But how Riley quantifies that production remains unclear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2024
Likewise, the logician would argue, You only live once should be rewritten as You live only once, with only next to the thing it quantifies, once.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
The findings, published in Integrative Organismal Biology, provide the first quantified evidence that free swimming sharks can detect and orient away from sounds in the acoustic far field.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
She described the figures as "incredibly concerning", with the true impact of artificial intelligence on the workplace yet to be quantified.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
Bridgestock and colleagues instead looked at acid mine drainage, a common side effect of mining that, despite being well understood, had never been formally quantified before this study.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
For example, the Goldman note highlighted that 54% of companies discussed AI productivity on their first-quarter earnings calls, but only 11% quantified the benefits, while even fewer, just 2%, quantified the impact on earnings.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026
These systems were modeled on the theories of Frederick Winslow Taylor, an industrial engineer, who argued that companies should be run “scientifically,” with each worker’s task minutely analyzed and quantified.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
To call his latest film a contemporary masterwork would be true, but there’s also no quantifying the magic McElwee conjures here, no comparing it to anything else.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
The 253-page report examines the purported scientific advances in quantifying the extent to which CO2 emissions contribute to natural disasters and extreme weather.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
The surest sign of market dislocation is when banks start quantifying their exposure to a given issue.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 24, 2026
By quantifying that threshold, ALFA-K turns genome doubling from a descriptive observation into a predictable evolutionary event.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 26, 2026
Donders’s writing at the time shows an ebullient quality, such as when he describes the challenges of quantifying mental processing.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
