Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To determine or express the quantity of.
  • transitive verb Logic To limit the variables of (a proposition) by prefixing an operator such as all or some.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To determine the quantity of; modify or determine with regard to quantity; mark with the sign of quantity: as, to quantify a syllable or a verse: more especially a term in logic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To modify or qualify with respect to quantity; to determine, fix or express the quantity of; to rate.
  • transitive verb (Logic) To make explicit the quantity of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To assign a quantity to.
  • verb To determine the value of (a variable or expression).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb express as a number or measure or quantity
  • verb use as a quantifier

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin quantificāre : Latin quantus, how great; see quantity + Latin -ficāre, -fy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin quantificare (introduced by Sir William Hamilton in logic)

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Examples

  • Perhaps the desire to quantify is going too far here.

    Vouchers and Education, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • A difficult one to quantify is the fundraisers where you pays your money and, say, get a meal.

    Page 2 2007

  • Finally, there is another issue, also hard to quantify, that is both psychic and financial: economic sentiment.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • MIKE PESCA: It's hard to quantify, which is especially frustrating given who we're talking about, but the baseball stat gurus loved "Moneyball" from the moment it was published in 2003.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • Finally, there is another issue, also hard to quantify, that is both psychic and financial: economic sentiment.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • The first way that we're trying to quantify is to see if the users are interested in using the recommendations that come out of the algorithm.

    Online Personals Watch 2009

  • The first way that we're trying to quantify is to see if the users are interested in using the recommendations that come out of the algorithm.

    Online Personals Watch 2009

  • So science can accurately measure and analyse the nature of the radio waves along which are transmitted jazz or rock, but cannot definitively 'quantify' their qualitative differences.

    A Materialist Red Herring 2009

  • I am sure you would come back and pontificate some more but let me give you credit for at least trying to "quantify" your analysis, as simplistic and flawed as it was ...

    Poll: Hillary Way, Way Ahead In Florida Primary 2009

  • But there is a way to try to "quantify" politics and that is through public opinion surveys.

    Poll: Hillary With Wide National Lead For Dems, Beats Rudy In General 2009

Comments

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  • My boss uses this word a lot. He thinks he's real smart.

    August 15, 2007