quantify
Americanverb (used with object)
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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:
The rapid popularity of e-bikes has also made it difficult for law enforcement agencies, regulatory groups and medical officials to quantify what injuries were being caused by e-bikes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
To quantify a career like Neill’s is impossible, but “Jurassic Park” points to a trend that spanned his filmography, even defined it.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
So how do you quantify the 'best' - is it goals, drama, superstars at their peak?
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The jobs remain difficult to quantify, but the subsidies keep flowing to new data centers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
That meant that you calculated the cost of a public health project or medical procedure and tried to quantify its effectiveness.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
"We used a simple and very low-cost technique that quantifies the 'darkness' of fossil pollen and spores, a so-called Palynomorph Darkness Index."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
California’s recyclable packaging law prohibits manufacturers from using a “chasing arrows” recycling symbol on products or materials unless they are actually being recycled in a meaningful way, which the law quantifies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
“She quantifies her work to the voters as her primary reelection strategy,” Dutson said.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
But a new report from the Washington Post quantifies what many people have sensed: Trump’s use of profanity, insults and combative language has grown much worse since his return to power in January 2025.
From Salon ● May 26, 2026
Writing is often clearer and more elegant when a writer pushes an only or a not next to the thing that it quantifies.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
By measuring the chemistry of rivers draining the mines, they quantified the extent of acid mine drainage and how much of the water was neutralized through mineral reactions that produce carbon dioxide.
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
In 96 cereal samples and 18 cereal based products from the Romanian market, only chrysene was quantified in 17% of cereal samples, while no PAHs were quantified in the derived products.
From Science Daily ● May 22, 2026
Measurement is a key holdup for some big brands because returns on creator campaigns can’t be quantified as easily as for traditional TV commercials.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
But the bottled oxygen conferred other benefits that weren’t so easily quantified.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Early research quantifying the economic impact of ICE raids in Oxnard estimates direct crop losses of $3 billion to $7 billion with significant spillover into other sectors of the economy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
A Stanford A.I. index study released this week did the useful work of quantifying just how big a gap there is in sentiment toward A.I. between the people working on it and the general public.
From Slate ● Apr. 14, 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
Yet the stock market has historically had a hard time quantifying the consequences of these types of risk, which helps explain the rather blasé reaction to unprecedented events.
From Barron's ● Jan. 14, 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
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.
