quantity

UK/ˈkwɒn.tɪ.ti/US/ˈkwɑn(t)ɪti/

nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,191 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: quantities

A quantity is a measurable number or amount of something. How much, expressed as a figure.

It is the counterpart of quality, and the pair appear together constantly, since quantity over quality is a standard complaint. It takes of. The plural means large amounts, so buying something in quantity means buying a lot. Maths and physics use it precisely for anything that can be measured. There is a nice fixed phrase in an unknown quantity, meaning a person or thing nobody can predict yet.

Definitions of quantity

1nounquantityAn amount or number that can be measured.B1+
“They ordered a large quantity of sand.”

Phrases it lives in

an unknown quantity — someone or something whose qualities are not yet known

Where it comes from

Quantity is the how-much of a thing. Latin quantus meant how much or how great, and quantitās simply turned the question into a noun.

Proto-Indo-European
*kʷ-
Latin
quantitās — quantity
Old French
quantité
Middle English
quantite
English, today
quantity

Built from

quantus · Latin — how much

From Middle English quantite, from Old French quantité, from Latin quantitās (“quantity”), from quantus (“how much”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 20 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

quantity in the wild

The concepts of dimensional analysis and quantity dimension were introduced by Joseph Fourier in 1822.
Dimensional analysis
Half-life is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value.
Half-life
The accompanying table shows the reduction of a quantity as a function of the number of half-lives elapsed.
Half-life
The International Organization for Standardization calls a physical quantity with units of 'one' a characteristic number.
Dimensionless quantity
When the price rises, quantity demanded falls for almost any good (law of demand), but it falls more for some than for others.
Price elasticity of demand

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the quantus family

quantity

quantity — used about once every 1,790 pages · #6,191 · point at the bar for the others

quantitative

← Vocabulary

quantity

UK/ˈkwɒn.tɪ.ti/US/ˈkwɑn(t)ɪti/

nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,191 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: quantities

A quantity is a measurable number or amount of something. How much, expressed as a figure.

Definitions of quantity

1nounquantityAn amount or number that can be measured.B1+
“They ordered a large quantity of sand.”

Phrases it lives in

an unknown quantity — someone or something whose qualities are not yet known

Where it comes from

Quantity is the how-much of a thing. Latin quantus meant how much or how great, and quantitās simply turned the question into a noun.

Proto-Indo-European
*kʷ-
Latin
quantitās — quantity
Old French
quantité
Middle English
quantite
English, today
quantity

Built from

quantus · Latin — how much

From Middle English quantite, from Old French quantité, from Latin quantitās (“quantity”), from quantus (“how much”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 20 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

quantity in the wild

The concepts of dimensional analysis and quantity dimension were introduced by Joseph Fourier in 1822.
Dimensional analysis
Half-life is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value.
Half-life
The accompanying table shows the reduction of a quantity as a function of the number of half-lives elapsed.
Half-life
The International Organization for Standardization calls a physical quantity with units of 'one' a characteristic number.
Dimensionless quantity
When the price rises, quantity demanded falls for almost any good (law of demand), but it falls more for some than for others.
Price elasticity of demand

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the quantus family

quantity

quantity — used about once every 1,790 pages · #6,191 · point at the bar for the others

quantitative