amount

verb \ ə-ˈmau̇nt \

|Updated on: 16 Jun 2018

Usage guide: amount vs. number

Examples: amount in a Sentence

Definition of amount

amounted; amounting; amounts

intransitive verb

1 a : to be the same in meaning or effect as

acts that amount to treason

b : to reach in kind or quality : to turn out to be

wanted her son to amount to something [=to be successful]

The changes don't really amount to much. [=are not really substantial or significant]

2 : to reach a total : add up

The bill amounts to $10.

See amount defined for English-language learners

See amount defined for kids

Recent Examples of amount from the Web

Throw all the numbers together, and the Cursed Child is one expensive kid amounting to a $68.5 million bill.

— kayla keegan, Good Housekeeping, "Everything You Need to Know About Broadway's 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'," 10 June 2018
For communities such as Orland Park that have home rule sales taxes, the state had levied an administrative fee amounting to 2 percent of collections, but the new state budget shaves that to 1.5 percent.

— mike nolan, Daily Southtown, "New taxes, job cuts possible as Orland Park officials tackle budget gap," 8 June 2018
In the process, the Kurds have assumed de facto control over a vast area of mostly desert terrain amounting to nearly a third of Syrian territory.

— liz sly, Washington Post, "Assad threatens to expel U.S. troops from Syria by ‘force’," 31 May 2018
Passage of the two measures, by margins of 11-to-1, amounted to a vote of no-confidence in Reed, the council member most heavily involved in museum issues.

— bill turque, kansascity, "Amid charges of gamesmanship, KC Council takes firmer hand with American Jazz Museum | The Kansas City Star," 24 May 2018
Several filed a federal lawsuit claiming his efforts to prey on women and cover up complaints amounted to a criminal enterprise.

— colleen long, BostonGlobe.com, "Harvey Weinstein expected to turn himself in for arrest," 24 May 2018
Lowe sees these nonmembership revenue streams amounting to somewhere between $5 to $7 per user each month.

— kyle stock, Bloomberg.com, "How Two Million People Loved MoviePass Nearly to Death," 16 May 2018
In addition, although previous research suggested that each sail might encounter about a billion dust particles on the way to Alpha Centauri, such impacts would likely punch holes amounting to less than 0.1 percent of the collective sail area.

— charles q. choi, Scientific American, "Building Sails for Interstellar Probes Will Be Tough, But Not Impossible," 10 May 2018
The New Venture Fund Salmon State, backed by the Hewlett Foundation of Washington, D.C., has made in-kind contributions amounting to about $37,000.

— laine welch, Anchorage Daily News, "Upper Cook Inlet’s herring, smelt commercial fisheries pay big bucks to fishermen," 23 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'amount.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of amount

Middle English, from Anglo-French amounter, from amount upward, from a- (from Latin ad-) + mont mountain — more at mount

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

amount

noun

Definition of amount

1 a : the total number or quantity : aggregate

trying to figure the amount of time it will take

b : the quantity at hand or under consideration

has an enormous amount of energy

2 : the whole effect, significance, or import

3 accounting : a principal sum and the interest on it

See amount defined for English-language learners

amount vs. number

Number is regularly used with count nouns

- a large number of mistakes
- any number of times

while amount is mainly used with mass nouns.

- annual amount of rainfall
- a substantial amount of money

The use of amount with count nouns has been frequently criticized; it usually occurs when the number of things is thought of as a mass or collection