quantify

verb

quan·ti·fy | \ ˈkwän-tə-ˌfī

How to pronounce quantify (audio)

\

quantified; quantifying

Definition of quantify

transitive verb

1a(1) : to limit by a quantifier

(2) : to bind by prefixing a quantifier

b : to make explicit the logical quantity of

2 : to determine, express, or measure the quantity of

Examples of quantify in a Sentence

It is difficult to quantify intelligence. Doctors have quantified the risks of smoking cigarettes. It is impossible to quantify the number of Web sites on the Internet.

Recent Examples on the Web Historians generally agree that breaking the Enigma code probably shortened the war by at least years, although that sort of thing is nearly impossible to quantify. — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, "Divers recover a WWII Enigma Machine from the Baltic Sea," 27 Dec. 2020 But more broadly, NQH20 is a troubling advance for the process of financialization – a process with many clear, concrete benefits, and some major, harder-to-quantify risks. — David Z. Morris, Fortune, "Money should flow like water … but should water be like money?," 9 Dec. 2020 The amount of capital Tucker earned from beating Michigan in Year 1 of his tenure is impossible to quantify. — Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press, "Big Ten winners and losers: Jim Harbaugh takes his biggest 'L' at Michigan," 2 Nov. 2020 These patients exhibit apathy and declines in judgment, self control and empathy that have proved difficult to objectively quantify. — Gina Kolata, BostonGlobe.com, "Alzheimer’s prediction may be found in writing tests," 1 Feb. 2021 Sophisticated technologies can now quantify a dozen variables of a sprinting stride and decoding the clues within that data is a budding cottage industry, but there may also be more of a schoolyard ethos to the assessment. — Bill Pennington, New York Times, "Can’t Measure Heart? N.F.L. Teams Are Trying," 14 Jan. 2021 In both cases, labs analyze the samples using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tests, which can detect genetic material from SARS-CoV-2 and quantify the number of viral particles in each milliliter of sample. — Robert F. Service, Science | AAAS, "Saliva could hold clues to how sick you will get from COVID-19," 13 Jan. 2021 Peters and other experts, however, question the very premise of that goal, saying it’s impossible to quantify wildlife trafficking online because deals are so often made in secret. — Animals, "The black-market trade in wildlife has moved online, and the deluge is 'dizzying'," 18 Dec. 2020 The research, which is among the first to quantify the contribution of heavier rainfall to flooding in the United States, found that the changing weather is responsible for $75 billion of the nation’s damages between 1998 and 2017. — Kurtis Alexander, SFChronicle.com, "Climate change causing one-third of flood damage in United States, Stanford study finds," 11 Jan. 2021

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

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Last Updated

26 Feb 2021

Cite this Entry

“Quantify.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quantify. Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

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More Definitions for quantify

quantify

verb

English Language Learners Definition of quantify

formal : to find or calculate the quantity or amount of (something)

See the full definition for quantify in the English Language Learners Dictionary

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