quantity

[ kwon-ti-tee ]
See synonyms for quantity on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural quan·ti·ties.
  1. a particular or indefinite amount of anything: a small quantity of milk;the ocean's vast quantity of fish.

  2. an exact or specified amount or measure: Mix the ingredients in the quantities called for.

  1. a considerable or great amount: to extract ore in quantity.

  2. Mathematics.

    • the property of magnitude involving comparability with other magnitudes.

    • something having magnitude, or size, extent, amount, or the like.

    • magnitude, size, volume, area, or length.

  3. Music. the length or duration of a note.

  4. Logic. the character of a proposition as singular, universal, particular, or mixed, according to the presence or absence of certain kinds of quantifiers.

  5. that amount, degree, etc., in terms of which another is greater or lesser.

  6. Prosody, Phonetics. the relative duration or length of a sound or a syllable, with respect to the time spent in pronouncing it; length.

  7. Law. the nature of an estate as affected by its duration in time.

Origin of quantity

1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English quantite, from Old French, from Latin quantitās, from quant(us) “how much” + -itās -ity

Words Nearby quantity

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use quantity in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for quantity

quantity

/ (ˈkwɒntɪtɪ) /


nounplural -ties
    • a specified or definite amount, weight, number, etc

    • (as modifier): a quantity estimate

  1. the aspect or property of anything that can be measured, weighed, counted, etc

  1. a large or considerable amount

  2. maths an entity having a magnitude that may be denoted by a numerical expression

  3. physics a specified magnitude or amount; the product of a number and a unit

  4. logic the characteristic of a proposition dependent on whether it is a universal or particular statement, considering all or only part of a class

  5. prosody the relative duration of a syllable or the vowel in it

Origin of quantity

1
C14: from Old French quantité, from Latin quantitās extent, amount, from quantus how much

usage For quantity

The use of a plural noun after quantity of as in a large quantity of bananas was formerly considered incorrect, but is now acceptable

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

Scientific definitions for quantity

quantity

[ kwŏntĭ-tē ]


  1. Something, such as a number or symbol that represents a number, on which a mathematical operation is performed.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with quantity

quantity

see unknown quantity.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.