amount

English

Etymology

From Middle English amounten (“to mount up to, come up to, signify”), from Old French amonter (“to amount to”), from amont, amunt (“uphill, upward”), from the prepositional phrase a mont (“toward or to a mountain or heap”), from Latin ad montem, from ad (“to”) + montem, accusative of mons (“mountain”).

Pronunciation
  • enPR: ə.mount', IPA(key): /əˈmaʊnt/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -aʊnt

Noun

amount (plural amounts)

  1. The total, aggregate or sum of material (not applicable to discrete numbers or units or items in standard English).
    The amount of atmospheric pollution threatens a health crisis.
  2. A quantity or volume.
    Pour a small amount of water into the dish.
    The dogs need different amounts of food.
    • 2013 July 26, Leo Hickman, “How algorithms rule the world”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 26:
      The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. […] who, if anyone, is policing their use[?] Such concerns were sharpened further by the continuing revelations about how the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been using algorithms to help it interpret the colossal amounts of data it has collected from its covert dragnet of international telecommunications.
  3. (nonstandard, sometimes proscribed) The number (the sum) of elements in a set.
    • 2001, Gisella Gori, Towards an EU right to education, page 195:
      The final amount of students who have participated to mobility for the period 1995-1999 is held to be around 460 000.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations
number of elements in a set — see number
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

amount (third-person singular simple present amounts, present participle amounting, simple past and past participle amounted)

  1. (intransitive, followed by to) To total or evaluate.
    It amounts to three dollars and change.
  2. (intransitive, followed by to) To be the same as or equivalent to.
    He was a pretty good student, but never amounted to much professionally.
    His response amounted to gross insubordination
  3. (obsolete, intransitive) To go up; to ascend.
    • Spenser
      So up he rose, and thence amounted straight.

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

Further reading
  • amount in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • amount in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
  • amount at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.