order of magnitude

British

noun

Also called: order. the approximate size of something, esp measured in powers of 10

the order of magnitude of the deficit was as expected
their estimates differ by an order of magnitude

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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order of magnitude

Meanwhile Elon Musk has cut the cost of space travel by at least an order of magnitude with the reusable rocket.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2026

The researchers found that melting within these channels can increase by roughly an order of magnitude in some areas.

From Science Daily ● May 10, 2026

The range of credible estimates on AI’s productivity impact span roughly an order of magnitude.

From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026

If that is the case, we will have the breaking of a bubble that will be worse in order of magnitude than the 1990s tech bubble.

From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026

The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any other mountain I’d been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023