quantity

quan·ti·ty

noun \ˈkwän-tə-tē\

plural quan·ti·ties

Definition of QUANTITY

1

a : an indefinite amount or number

b : a determinate or estimated amount

c : total amount or number

d : a considerable amount or number —often used in plural <generous quantities of luck — H. E. Putsch>

2

a : the aspect in which a thing is measurable in terms of greater, less, or equal or of increasing or decreasing magnitude

b : the subject of a mathematical operation

c : an individual considered with respect to a given situation <an unknown quantity…as attorney general — Tom Wicker>

3

a : duration and intensity of speech sounds as distinct from their individual quality or phonemic character; specifically : the relative length or brevity of a prosodic syllable in some languages (as Greek and Latin)

b : the relative duration or time length of a speech sound or sound sequence

4

: the character of a logical proposition as being universal, particular, or singular

Examples of QUANTITY

1. The wine is made in small quantities.
2. The boss is worried about quantity as well as quality.
3. The family buys food in quantity.

Origin of QUANTITY

Middle English quantite, from Anglo-French quantité, from Latin quantitat-, quantitas, from quantus how much, how large; akin to Latin quam how, as, quando when, qui who — more at who

First Known Use: 14th century

Related to QUANTITY

Synonyms

abundance, barrel, basketful, boatload, bucket, bunch, bundle, bushel, carload, chunk, deal, dozen, fistful, gobs, good deal, heap, hundred, lashings (also lashins) [chiefly British], loads, mass, mess, mountain, much, multiplicity, myriad, oodles, pack, passel, peck, pile, plateful, plenitude, plentitude, plenty, pot, potful, profusion, lot, raft, reams, scads, sheaf, shipload, sight, slew, spate, stack, store, ton, truckload, volume, wad, wealth, yard

Antonyms

ace, bit, dab, dram, driblet, glimmer, handful, hint, lick, little, mite, mouthful, nip, ounce, peanuts, pinch, pittance, scruple, shade, shadow, smidgen (also smidgeon or smidgin or smidge), speck, spot, sprinkle, sprinkling, strain, streak, suspicion, tad, taste, touch, trace

Related Words

epidemic, plague, rash; bonanza, embarrassment, excess, overabundance, overage, overkill, overmuch, oversupply, plethora, redundancy, superabundance, superfluity, surfeit, surplus; deluge, flood, overflow; army, bevy, cram, crowd, crush, drove, flock, herd, horde, host, legion, mob, multitude, press, score, sea, swarm, throng; gazillion, jillion, kazillion, million, thousands, trillion, zillion

Near Antonyms

atom, crumb, dot, fleck, flyspeck, fragment, grain, granule, iota, jot, modicum, molecule, mote, nubbin, particle, ray, scintilla, scrap, shred, tittle, whit; smatter, smattering; dash, drop, morsel, shot; piece, portion, section; absence, dearth, famine, lack, paucity, poverty, scarceness, scarcity, shortage, undersupply, want; deficiency, deficit, inadequacy, insufficiency, meagerness, scantiness, scantness, skimpiness

Other Mathematics and Statistics Terms

abscissa, denominator, divisor, equilateral, exponent, hypotenuse, logarithm, oblique, radii, rhomb