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

The new European discovery is that once you step out of America’s first-tier cities, you find places that also are an order of magnitude “more so” than Europe’s equivalents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

“I can tell you, having done it for four years, that’s an order of magnitude more difficult.”

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 12, 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 order of magnitude we’re still working through, and I think a lot of that is still to be determined.”

From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 2026

Their problems are an order of magnitude more serious than math anxiety.

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

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