# quantum
## English
### Etymology

From Late Latin quantum, noun use of neuter form of Latin quantus (“how much”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkwɒntəm/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈkwɑntəm/
** (US, Canada) IPA: (enunciated) [ˈkʰwɑ̃ntʰə̃m], (common flapped realization) [ˈkʰwɑ̃ɾ̃ə̃m]
** Audio (US):(file) (enunciated)
** Audio (US):(file) (flapped)
Note: in General American, the enunciated form is more common when the word is used on its own; but in connected speech, when it is used as a modifier (as in quantum mechanics), the flapped form is more common.

### Noun

quantum (countable and uncountable, plural quantums or quanta)
* (now chiefly South Asia or law) The total amount of something; quantity. [from 17th c.]
** 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 416:The reader will perhaps be curious to know the quantum of this present, but we cannot satisfy his curiosity.
** 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 142:A certain quantum of power must always exist in the community, in some hands, and under some appellation.
** 1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 375:Otherwise I will have given the lie to my maxim that whether you work eight or twenty hours, the quantum of work that gets done on a normal day is the same.
** 2008 May 21, The Times of India:The Congress's core ministerial panel on Friday gave its green signal to raising motor fuel prices but the quantum of increase emerged as a hitch.
** (law) The amount of compensation awarded to a successful party in a lawsuit.
** (law) The length or magnitude of the sentence handed down to someone who has been found guilty of a crime.
* The amount or quantity observably present, or available. [from 18th c.]
** 1979, John Le Carré, Smiley's People, Folio Society, published 2010, page 96:Each man has only a quantum of compassion, he argued, and mine is used up for the day.
** 1999, Sigmund Freud, translated by Joyce Crick, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford, published 2008, page 34:The dream of flying, according to Strümpell, is the appropriate image used by the psyche to interpret the quantum of stimulus [translating Reizquantum] proceeding from the rise and fall of the lungs when the cutaneous sensation of the thorax has simultaneously sunk into unconsciousness.
* (physics) The smallest possible, and therefore indivisible, unit of a given quantity or quantifiable phenomenon. [from 20th c.]
** 2002, David C Cassidy et al., Understanding Physics, Birkhauser, page 602:The quantum of light energy was later called a photon.
* (computing) The amount of time allocated for a thread to perform its work in a multithreaded environment.
* (computing, uncountable) Short for quantum computing.
    Developing for quantum has never been more accessible.
* (medicine) The minimum dose of a pathogen required to cause an infection.
    Synonym: infectious dose
* (mathematics) A definite portion of a manifoldness, limited by a mark or by a boundary.
** 1882, William Kingdon Clifford, Mathematical Papers:Defined parts of a manifoldness are called Quanta

#### Derived terms

* blood quantum
* post-quantum
* quantize
* quantum bogosort
* quantum interference
* quantum of action
* quantum of Indian blood
* quantum-proof
* quantum-resistant
* quantum-safe
* quantum state tomography
* quantum weirdness
* time quantum

#### Translations
### Adjective

quantum (not comparable)
* Of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages.
* (informal) Of a change, significant.
* (physics) Involving quanta, quantum mechanics or other aspects of quantum physics.
** 2012 January, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 19 June 2017, page 86:Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.
** (computing theory) Relating to a quantum computer.
    Antonym: classical

#### Derived terms

* azimuthal quantum number
* cavity quantum electrodynamics
* loop quantum gravity
* magnetic quantum number
* orbital quantum number
* principal quantum number
* quantize
* quantum acoustics
* quantum algorithm
* quantum anomaly
* quantum biology
* quantum biophysics
* quantum bit, ⇒ qubit, ⇒ qu-
* quantum bogodynamics
* quantum brain
* quantum brain dynamics
* quantum byte
* quantum calculus
* quantum cascade laser
* quantum catalyst
* quantum channel
* quantum chaos
* quantum chemistry
* quantum chromodynamics
* quantum circuit
* quantum clock
* quantum cloning
* quantum coherence
* quantum cohomology
* quantum computation
* quantum computer
* quantum computing
* quantum cryptography
* quantum darwinism
* quantum decoherence
* quantum degeneracy
* quantum dense coding
* quantum discord
* quantum dot
* quantum effect device
* quantum efficiency
* quantum electrochemistry
* quantum electrodynamics
* quantum electronics
* quantum-entangled
* quantum entanglement
* quantum eraser
* quantum ferrofluid
* quantum field
* quantum field theory
* quantum fingerprinting
* quantum flavordynamics
* quantum fluctuation
* quantum foam
* quantum game theory
* quantum gate
* quantum gauge theory
* quantum geometry
* quantum graphity
* quantum gravitation
* quantum gravity
* quantum group
* quantum gyroscope
* quantum hadrodynamics
* quantum Hall effect
* quantum harmonic oscillator
* quantum heterostructure
* quantum history
* quantum hydrodynamics
* quantum imaging
* quantum immortality
* quantum indeterminacy
* quantum inequality
* quantum information
* quantum information science
* quantum information theory
* quantum Internet
* quantum jump (calqued from Dutch)
* quantum leap (calqued from Dutch)
* quantum level
* quantum limit
* quantum link
* quantum logic
* quantum logic gate
* quantum measurement problem
* quantum mechanical
* quantum-mechanical
* quantum-mechanically
* quantum mechanics
* quantum multiverse
* quantum mysticism
* quantum network
* quantum neural network
* quantum number
* quantum onion
* quantum ontology
* quantum operation
* quantum operator
* quantum optics
* quantum phase transition
* quantum physics
* quantum processing unit
* quantum process tomography
* quantum programming
* quantum psychology
* quantum randomness
* quantum register
* quantum scalar field
* quantum solid
* quantum solvent
* quantum sort
* quantum soup
* quantum source
* quantum spin, ⇒ quantum spin liquid
* quantum state
* quantum statistical mechanics
* quantum sufficit
* quantum suicide
* quantum superposition
* quantum supremacy
* quantum teleportation
* quantum theory
* quantum tomography
* quantum tunnel
* quantum tunnelling
* quantum unit of spin
* quantum universe
* quantum valebat
* quantum vibration
* quantum virtual machine
* quantum volume
* quantum waveform generator
* quantum well
* quantum wire
* quantum yield
* quantum Zeno effect
* spin quantum number
* subquantum

#### Descendants

* → French: quantum
* → Portuguese: quantum

#### Further reading

* quantum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

## Basque
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kwantum/ [kwãn̪.t̪ũm]
* Rhymes: -antum, -um

### Noun

quantum inan
* Alternative form of kuantu (“quantum”)

#### Declension
### Further reading

* “quantum”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

## French
### Etymology

From Latin quantum.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɑ̃.tɔm/, /kwɑ̃.tɔm/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

quantum m (plural quanta)
* (physics) quantum

### Further reading

* “quantum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Italian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German Quantum, from Latin quantum. Doublet of quanto, which was also re-borrowed with the same meaning as quantum. First attested before 1930.

### Noun

quantum m (plural quanta)
* quantum
    Synonym: quanto

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈkʷan.tum/, [ˈkʷän̪t̪ʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈkwan.tum/, [ˈkwän̪t̪um]

### Adjective

quantum
* inflection of quantus:
** nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
** accusative masculine singular

### Determiner

quantum (with genitive)
* (when coupled with tantum) as much of […] as
    da mihi tantum aquae quantum vini ― give me as much of water as wine
* how high, how dear, as dear as

#### Derived terms

* quantum libet
* quantum meruit
* quantum satis
* quantum valebant

#### Descendants

* → Dutch: kvante (learned)
* → English: quantum (learned)
** → French: quantum
** → Portuguese: quantum
* French: quant
* → German: Quantum (learned)
* Italian: quanto
* Spanish: cuanto
* Portuguese: quanto

### References

* “quantum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “quantum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "quantum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* quantum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. (ambiguous) as far as I can guess: quantum ego coniectura assequor, auguror (ambiguous) as far as I know: quantum scio (ambiguous) I am not dissatisfied with my progress: non me paenitet, quantum profecerim (ambiguous) to take only enough food to support life: tantum cibi et potionis adhibere quantum satis est
* Dizionario Latino, Olivetti

## Portuguese
### Alternative forms

* quântum (rare)

### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin quantum. Doublet of quanto.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈkwɐ̃.tũ/
* (Portugal) IPA: /ˈkwɐ̃.tũ/

### Noun

quantum m (plural quanta or (uncommon) quantuns)
* (physics) quantum (indivisible unit of a given quantity)

#### Related terms

* quanto
* quântico