Non-numerical words for quantities

The English language has a number of words that denote specific or approximate quantities that are themselves not numbers.[1] Along with numerals, and special-purpose words like some, any, much, more, every, and all, they are quantifiers. Quantifiers are a kind of determiner and occur in many constructions with other determiners, like articles: e.g., two dozen or more than a score. Scientific non-numerical quantities are represented as SI units.

List of non-numerical quantities

Name Quantity Description
Brace 2 An old term of venery, meaning means ‘a pair of [some animal, especially birds] caught in the hunt’. Also a measure of length, originally representing a person's outstretched arms.
Couple 2 A set of two of items of a type
Century 100 Primarily denotes one hundred years, but occasionally used, especially in the context of sport, to refer to something consisting of one hundred, as in a 100-mile race or 100 points.
Dozen 12 A collection of twelve things or units from Old French dozaine "a dozen, a number of twelve" in various usages, from doze (12c.) [2]
Baker's dozen 13 From the notion that a baker would include an extra item in a batch of twelve so as not to be accused of shortchanging a customer
Half-dozen 6 Six of something
Decade 10 Primarily denotes ten years, but occasionally refers to ten of something
Duo 2 In reference to people engaged in an endeavor together, as in musical performance (other words denote three or more people in the same context: trio, quartet, etc.)
Grand 1,000 Slang for a thousand of some unit of currency, such as dollars or pounds.
Gross 144 Twelve dozen
Score 20 Presumably from the practice, in counting sheep or large herds of cattle, of counting orally from one to twenty, and making a score or notch on a stick, before proceeding to count the next twenty.[3][4] A distance of twenty yards in ancient archery and gunnery.[5]
Threescore 60 Three score (3x20)
Large 1,000 Slang for one thousand
Myriad 10,000 Loosely refers to a very large quantity
Pair 2 Often in reference to identical objects
Trio 3 Referring to people working or collaborating especially in musical performance
Few 3 Small number of something
Quartet 4 Referring to people working or collaborating especially in musical performance; also: Quintet, Sextet, Septet, Octet
Great gross 1,728 A dozen gross (12x144)
Hat-trick 3 The achievement of, a generally positive feat, three times in a game, or another achievement based on the number three [6]
Several 3+ Three or more but not many.
Small gross 120 Ten dozen (10x12) [7]
Great hundred 120 Ten dozen (10x12) or six score (6x20), also known as long-hundred or twelfty [8][9]
Ton 100 One hundred points in the sport of Darts.
None, nil, zilch 0 Zero
Lakh 100,000 Indian numbering system: One hundred thousand
Crore 10,000,000 Indian numbering system: ten million
Arab 1,000,000,000 Indian numbering system: billion
Kharab 100,000,000,000 Indian numbering system: hundred billion
Nil 1013 Indian numbering system: ten trillion
Padma 1015 Indian numbering system: quadrillion
Shankh 1017 Indian numbering system: hundred quadrillion
Mole ~602 sextillion 6.02214076×1023, widely used in chemistry for the amount of substance

See also

References

  1. ^ "Non-numerical words for quantities ⋆ Annie Non-numerical words". Annie. 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  2. ^ "dozen | Origin and meaning of dozen by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  3. ^ Conway, John H.; Guy, Richard K. (1996). The Book of Numbers. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-4072-3. ISBN 978-1-4612-8488-8.
  4. ^ "score | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  5. ^ "score - Wiktionary". en.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  6. ^ "hat trick | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  7. ^ Wright, Carroll Davidson (1910). The New Century Book of Facts: A Handbook of Ready Reference. King-Richardson Company.
  8. ^ Wells, David (1986). The Penguin dictionary of curious and interesting numbers. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-026149-4. OCLC 39262447.
  9. ^ Zupko, Ronald Edward (1968). A dictionary of English weights and measures : from Anglo-Saxon times to the nineteenth century. University of Wisconsin Press. OCLC 898998378.
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