quantify

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *kʷ-

Proto-Indo-European *kʷos?

Proto-Indo-European *-onts?

Proto-Indo-European *kʷoider.?

Proto-Italic *kʷāntos

Latin quantus

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der.

Proto-Italic *θakos

Proto-Italic *-fakos

Latin -ficus

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu.

Proto-Italic *-ājō

Proto-Italic *-āō

Latin -ō

Latin -ficō

Medieval Latin quantificōder.

English quantify

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒn.tɪˌfaɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑn.tɪˌfaɪ/, [ˈkwɑn.ɾɪˌfaɪ], /ˈkwɑn.təˌfaɪ/, [ˈkwɑn.ɾəˌfaɪ]
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒn.tɪˌfaɪ/, [ˈkwɒn.ɾɪˌfaɪ]
• (Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɔn.tɪˌfɑe/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒn.təˌfaɪ/, [ˈkwɔ̟n.təˌfɑe̯]

Verb

quantify (third-person singular simple present quantifies, present participle quantifying, simple past and past participle quantified)

1. (transitive) To assign a quantity to.
2. To determine the value of (a variable or expression).
   • 2012 January, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 3 October 2013, page 31:

     As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.

   • 2015 July 6, “Dichloroacetate, the Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex and the Modulation of mESC Pluripotency”, in PLOS ONE‎^[2], →DOI:

     Once more significant differences were observed for CTR w/o LIF. (E)- Protein levels for Hexokinase I and II, GAPDH and PKM1/2 were determined by western Blot and quantified by densiometric evaluation.

   • 2015 August 15, “Expression of Emotional Arousal in Two Different Piglet Call Types”, in PLOS ONE‎^[3], →DOI:

     The most common model contains two core affect dimensions: arousal, which quantifies the intensity of the response, and valence, which quantifies the aversiveness of the situation—ranging from a very positive (pleasurable) to a very negative (aversive) emotional state.

   • 2015 October 29, “Transcriptomic Changes in Coral Holobionts Provide Insights into Physiological Challenges of Future Climate and Ocean Change”, in PLOS ONE‎^[4], →DOI:

     Standards for methanol extracted pigments chlorophyll a, c 2 . peridinin, β carotene, diatoxanthin and diadinoxanthin were used for quantifying pigments which were normalized per cell.

3. (logic) To relate a statement (called a predicate) to a given set using a quantifier—either for all (denoted ∀) or there exists (denoted ∃).

   The statement $(\forall x\in \mathbb {R} )\,2x=x+x$ quantifies over the real numbers.

Synonyms

• (measure the quantity of): quantitate

Derived terms

• misquantify
• overquantify
• quantifiability
• quantifiable
• requantify
• semiquantify

Translations

to assign a quantity to

• Bulgarian: определям количествено (opredeljam količestveno)
• Catalan: quantificar (ca)
• Czech: kvantifikovat
• Danish: kvantificere, gøre målbar
• Dutch: kwantificeren (nl)
• Finnish: määrittää (fi), kvantifioida, määrällistää (fi)
• French: quantifier (fr)
• German: quantifizieren (de)
• Hungarian: számszerűsít (hu), kvantifikál, mennyiségileg/​számszerűen meghatároz/​kifejez
• Italian: quantificare (it)
• Macedonian: уколичува (ukoličuva), ме́ри (méri), квантифи́кува (kvantifíkuva)
• Polish: określać ilościowo impf, określić ilościowo pf
• Portuguese: quantificar (pt)
• Romanian: cuantifica (ro)
• Russian: квантифици́ровать (ru) (kvantificírovatʹ)
• Spanish: cuantificar (es), cifrar (es)
• Swedish: kvantifiera (sv)