ORDER OF MAGNITUDE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does order of magnitude mean? 

• ORDER OF MAGNITUDE (noun)
  The noun ORDER OF MAGNITUDE has 2 senses:

1. a degree in a continuum of size or quantity

2. a number assigned to the ratio of two quantities; two quantities are of the same order of magnitude if one is less than 10 times as large as the other; the number of magnitudes that the quantities differ is specified to within a power of 10

  Familiarity information: ORDER OF MAGNITUDE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ORDER OF MAGNITUDE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A degree in a continuum of size or quantity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

order; order of magnitude

Context example:

an explosion of a low order of magnitude

Hypernyms ("order of magnitude" is a kind of...):

magnitude (the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A number assigned to the ratio of two quantities; two quantities are of the same order of magnitude if one is less than 10 times as large as the other; the number of magnitudes that the quantities differ is specified to within a power of 10

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Synonyms:

magnitude; order of magnitude

Hypernyms ("order of magnitude" is a kind of...):

ratio (the relative magnitudes of two quantities (usually expressed as a quotient))

 Context examples 

The researchers then looked at rates of erosion: they calculated that a crater of that size would have initially been more half a mile deep between its rim and floor, which is an order of magnitude greater than its present depth.

(NASA Finds Possible Second Impact Crater Under Greenland Ice, NASA)