magnitude

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmæɡnɪtjuːd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

magnitude (countable and uncountable, plural magnitudes)

1. (uncountable, countable) The absolute or relative size, extent or importance of something.
   • 2020 September 23, Paul Stephen, “East Coast upgrade: changes to schedule... but on schedule”, in Rail, page 31:

     And on a programme of works of this magnitude, passengers will need to be mindful of the age-old maxim of 'no gain without pain'.

2. (countable) An order of magnitude.
3. (mathematics) A number, assigned to something, such that it may be compared to others numerically
4. (mathematics) Of a vector, the norm, most commonly, the two-norm.
5. (astronomy) A logarithmic scale of brightness defined so that a difference of 5 magnitudes is a factor of 100.
   1. (uncountable) The apparent brightness of a star, with lower magnitudes being brighter; apparent magnitude
   2. (countable) A ratio of intensity expressed as a logarithm.
      • 2005, Andreas Eckart et al., The Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way‎, →ISBN, page 71:

        Observations in the infrared domain allow one to penetrate the ~25-30 magnitudes of extinction present at visible wavelengths.

6. (seismology) A measure of the energy released by an earthquake (e.g. on the Richter scale).

Anagrams

• gamnitude

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ɲi.tyd/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

magnitude f (plural magnitudes)

1. magnitude

Further reading

• “magnitude”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Noun

magnitude f (plural magnitudes)

1. magnitude

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin magnitūdō (“greatness, size”). By surface analysis, magno +‎ -itude.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ud͡ʒi, (Portugal) -udɨ
• Hyphenation: mag‧ni‧tu‧de

Noun

magnitude f (plural magnitudes)

1. magnitude (size, extent or importance)
2. (mathematics) magnitude (value assigned to a variable)
3. (mathematics) magnitude (the norm of a vector)
4. (astronomy) magnitude (apparent brightness of a star)
5. (seismology) magnitude (energy of an earthquake)