quantity

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A specified or indefinite number or amount.
2. n. A considerable amount or number: sells drugs wholesale and in quantity.
3. n. An exact amount or number.
4. n. The measurable, countable, or comparable property or aspect of a thing.
5. n. Mathematics Something that serves as the object of an operation.
6. n. Linguistics The relative amount of time needed to pronounce a vowel, consonant, or syllable.
7. n. The duration of a syllable in quantitative verse.
8. n. Logic The exact character of a proposition in reference to its universality, singularity, or particularity.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The being so much in measure or extent; technically, the intrinsic mode by virtue of which a thing is more or less than another; a system of relationship by virtue of which one thing is said to be more or less than another; magnitude.
2. n. In the concrete, an object regarded as more or less; a quantum; any amount, magnitude, or aggregate, in a concrete sense: as, a quantity of water: sometimes erroneously used to denote that which should be enumerated rather than measured: as, a quantity of people. Any perfectly regular system of objects whose relations are definable in advance, and capable of construction in the imagination, forms a system of quantity capable of being dealt with by mathematical reasoning. The quantities of the mathematician, being constructed according to a definition laid down in advance, are imaginary, and in that sense abstract; but as being objects of the imagination, and not merely of the discursive reason, they are concrete. Mathematical quantities are either discrete (as whole numbers) or continuous. They may also be multiple, as vectors.
3. n. A large or considerable amount.
4. n. A piece or part, especially a small portion; anything very little or diminutive.
5. n. Proportion; correspondent degree.
6. n. In anc. orthoëpy, pros., and metrics, the relative time occupied in uttering a vowel or a syllable; that characteristic of a vowel or a syllable by which it is distinguished as long or short; syllabic measure or time; prosodic length. In ancient Greek and Latin pronunciation a long vowel or syllable occupied nearly, or in deliberate enunciation fully, twice the time of a short vowel or syllable, and the grammarians accordingly assumed the average short vowel or syllable as the prosodic unit (mora), and taught that a long vowel or syllable was equal to two short ones. Some vowels or syllables varied in time between these two limits and were called common, admitting of metrical use as either longs or shorts. In certain situations (elision, ecthlipsis) vowels were much shorter in pronunciation than the average short, and, although audible, were disregarded in metrical measurement. A syllable was long either by nature or by position (see long, adjective, 5 ). In the English pronunciation of Latin and Greek, quantity in the proper sense is entirely disregarded, except in so far as the length of the penult affects the accent according to the Latin rule; and English writers use the phrase false quantity for a false accentuation. Thus, to pronounce vec-tī'gal vec'ti-gal is called a “false quantity,” but to pronounce the a alike in păter and māter is not so designated.
7. n. In logic, that respect in which universal and particular propositions differ. See proposition, and logical quantity, below.
8. n. In electricity, the amount of electricity which passes through any section of a circuit in a unit of time: more exactly termed the strength of the current. A battery is arranged for quantity when the positive poles of all the cells are connected and all the negative poles are connected, so that the current is the maximum when the external resistance is small.
9. n. Quantity of comprehension or intension, or logical depth, a relative character of a term such that when it is in excess the term has all the predicates of another term, and more besides; or a relative character of a proposition such that when it is in excess the proposition is followed by all the consequents of another proposition, and more besides.
10. n. Quantity of science (Aquinas) or of information, a relative character of a concept such that when it is in excess it has all the subjects and predicates of another concept, and more besides, owing to its being in a mind which has more knowledge. Logical quantity is to be distinguished from the quantity of a proposition.
11. n. Specifically, same as duration or time-value: said of musical tones or notes.

Wiktionary

1. n. A fundamental, generic term used when referring to the measurement (count, amount) of a scalar, vector, number of items or to some other way of denominating the value of a collection or group of items.
2. n. An indefinite amount of something.
3. n. A specific measured amount.
4. n. A considerable measure or amount.
5. n. metrology Property of a phenomenon, body, or substance, where the property has a magnitude that can be expressed as number and a reference.
6. n. mathematics Indicates that the entire preceding expression is henceforth considered a single object.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The attribute of being so much, and not more or less; the property of being measurable, or capable of increase and decrease, multiplication and division; greatness; and more concretely, that which answers the question “How much?”; measure in regard to bulk or amount; determinate or comparative dimensions; measure; amount; bulk; extent; size.
2. n. (Logic) The extent or extension of a general conception, that is, the number of species or individuals to which it may be applied; also, its content or comprehension, that is, the number of its constituent qualities, attributes, or relations.
3. n. (Gram.) The measure of a syllable; that which determines the time in which it is pronounced.
4. n. (Mus.) The relative duration of a tone.
5. n. That which can be increased, diminished, or measured; especially (Math.), anything to which mathematical processes are applicable.
6. n. A determinate or estimated amount; a sum or bulk; a certain portion or part; sometimes, a considerable amount; a large portion, bulk, or sum.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an adequate or large amount
2. n. the concept that something has a magnitude and can be represented in mathematical expressions by a constant or a variable
3. n. how much there is or how many there are of something that you can quantify