quantity
noun
Quantity — the measurable extent of how much something there is
Definition
How much there is or how many there are of something that you can quantify
In depth
Quantity is the precise amount or number of something that can be counted or measured, the dimension along which a thing can be said to be more or less, regardless of its quality or kind. The word foregrounds the countable aspect of existence, deliberately set apart from any judgment about value or nature.
Origin
The word descends from Latin quantitas, formed from quantus, how much or how great. Its philosophical importance dates to Aristotle's categories, in which quantity stood as one of the fundamental ways a thing could be described, distinct from quality, relation, and the other categories through which existence could be analyzed.
Usage examples
"The recipe specified an exact quantity of sugar, no more and no less."
"Philosophers have long distinguished quantity from quality, insisting that how much a thing is says nothing about what kind of thing it is."
"Even grief seemed to have a quantity, she thought, a measurable weight that lessened, however slowly, with each passing year."
How to use it
Quantity is precise, slightly formal vocabulary suited to scientific, mathematical, and philosophical writing, where the quantity-quality distinction often carries real conceptual weight. In casual prose, 'amount' usually serves the same purpose with less formality.
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