magnitude

English

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^[1], →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).

Derived terms

• order of magnitude
• absolute magnitude
• apparent magnitude

Translations

size, etc.

• Armenian: մեծություն (hy) (mecutʿyun), չափ (hy) (čʿapʿ)
• Belarusian: велічыня́ (be) f (vjeličynjá)
• Bulgarian: големина (bg) f (golemina)
• Catalan: magnitud (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大小 (zh) (dàxiǎo)

• Dutch: grootte (nl) f
• Estonian: suurus, ulatus, tähtsus
• Finnish: koko (fi), laajuus (fi), merkitys (fi)
• French: ampleur (fr) f
• Georgian: სიდიდე (sidide)
• Gothic: 𐌼𐌹𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌳𐌿𐌸𐍃 f (mikildūþs), 𐌼𐌹𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌴𐌹 f (mikilei)
• Greek:

  Ancient: μέγεθος n (mégethos)

• Irish: méid (ga) f

• Italian: vastità (it) f, magnitudine (it)
• Japanese: 大きさ (ja) (おおきさ, ōkisa)
• Latin: magnitūdō f
• Maori: kaha (mi)
• Polish: wielkość (pl) f
• Portuguese: grandeza (pt) f, magnitude (pt)
• Romanian: mărime (ro) f
• Russian: величина́ (ru) f (veličiná), разме́р (ru) m (razmér)
• Scottish Gaelic: meudachd f
• Spanish: magnitud (es) f
• Swedish: magnitud (sv) c
• Tagalog: dakil
• Tajik: бузургӣ (buzurgī)
• Turkish: şiddet (tr), büyüklük (tr)
• Ukrainian: величина́ (uk) f (velyčyná)

number

• Armenian: մեծություն (hy) (mecutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: порядък (bg) m (porjadǎk)
• Estonian: suurus
• Finnish: suuruus (fi)
• French: grandeur (fr) f
• Japanese: 大きさ (ja) (おおきさ, ōkisa)

• Portuguese: magnitude (pt) f
• Romanian: mărime (ro) f (numerică), cantitate (ro) f
• Spanish: magnitud (es) f
• Swedish: magnitud (sv) c, storlek (sv) c
• Tagalog: dakil

of a vector

• Finnish: pituus (fi)
• French: module (fr) m
• German: Betrag (de) m
• Italian: module (it) m
• Japanese: 大きさ (ja) (おおきさ, ōkisa)
• Polish: długość (pl) f, wartość (pl) f, norma (pl) f

• Portuguese: magnitude (pt) f
• Romanian: mărime (ro) f
• Spanish: norma (es) f
• Swedish: magnitud (sv) c, längd (sv) c, norm (sv) c
• Tagalog: dakil

apparent brighness of a star

• Bulgarian: звездна величина (zvezdna veličina)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 等級 (zh), 等级 (zh) (děngjí), 星等 (zh) (xīngděng)

• Estonian: tähesuurus, magnituud
• Finnish: magnitudi, suuruusluokka (fi), kirkkausaste
• French: magnitude (fr) f
• Hungarian: magnitúdó
• Irish: méid (ga) f
• Italian: magnitudine (it) f
• Japanese: 等級 (ja) (とうきゅう, tōkyū)

• Persian: قدر‎ (fa) (qadr) فروغ‎ (fa) (forrûq)
• Polish: wielkość gwiazdowa f
• Portuguese: magnitude (pt) f
• Romanian: mărime stelară (ro) f, magnitudine (ro) f
• Russian: величина́ (ru) f (veličiná), магниту́да (ru) f (magnitúda)
• Spanish: magnitud (es) f
• Swedish: skenbar magnitud (sv) c
• Tagalog: kinang
• Turkish: kadir (tr)

energy of earthquake

• Armenian: ուժգնություն (hy) (užgnutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: магниту́д m (magnitúd)
• Estonian: magnituud
• Finnish: magnitudi, voimakkuus (fi)
• French: magnitude (fr) f
• Hungarian: magnitúdó
• Irish: méid creatha talún f
• Italian: magnitudo (it) f
• Japanese: マグニチュード (ja) (magunichūdo)

• Kazakh: магнитуда (magnïtwda)
• Polish: magnituda (pl) f
• Portuguese: magnitude (pt) f
• Romanian: magnitudine (ro) f (seismic), mărime (ro) f
• Russian: мо́щность (ru) f (móščnostʹ), магниту́да (ru) f (magnitúda)
• Spanish: magnitud (es) f
• Swedish: magnitud (sv) c
• Tagalog: dakil
• Turkish: şiddet (tr)

Anagrams

• gamnitude

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ɲi.tyd/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

magnitude f (plural magnitudes)

1. magnitude

Derived terms

• magnitude absolue
• magnitude apparente

Further reading

• “magnitude” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Galician

Noun

magnitude f (plural magnitudes)

1. magnitude

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -udʒi

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)