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magnitude

mag·ni·tude

UK/ˈmæɡnɪtjuːd/ US/ˈmæɡnɪt͡ʃuːd/ fairly common

noun

1.

the property of relative size or extent

  • “they tried to predict the magnitude of the explosion”
2.

a number assigned to the ratio of two quantities; two quantities are of the same order of magnitude if one is less than 10 times as large as the other; the number of magnitudes that the quantities differ is specified to within a power of 10

Synonyms
3.

relative importance

  • “a problem of the first magnitude”

Origin

From Latin magnitūdō (“greatness, size”), magnus + -tūdō.

Phrases

  • absolute magnitude
  • apparent magnitude
  • bolometric magnitude
  • moment magnitude scale
  • order of magnitude
  • radiometric magnitude
  • signed magnitude
  • visual magnitude

Related words

Word family

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.