quantum
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkwɒntəm/
ipa: /ˈkwɑntəm/
note: enunciated
ipa: [ˈkʰwɑ̃ntʰə̃m]
note: common flapped realization
ipa: [ˈkʰwɑ̃ɾ̃ə̃m]
Forms: form: quantums
form: quanta
Etymology: From Late Latin quantum, noun use of neuter form of Latin quantus (“how much”).
Senses: examples: text: The reader will perhaps be curious to know the quantum of this present, but we cannot satisfy his curiosity.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 416:
text: A certain quantum of power must always exist in the community, in some hands, and under some appellation.
ref: 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 142:
text: 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.
ref: 1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 375:
text: 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.
ref: 2008 May 21, The Times of India:
topics: law
glosses: The total amount of something; quantity.
topics: law
glosses: The total amount of something; quantity.
The amount of compensation awarded to a successful party in a lawsuit.
topics: law
glosses: The total amount of something; quantity.
The length or magnitude of the sentence handed down to someone who has been found guilty of a crime.
examples: text: Each man has only a quantum of compassion, he argued, and mine is used up for the day.
ref: 1979, John Le Carré, Smiley's People, Folio Society, published 2010, page 96:
text: 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.
ref: 1999, Sigmund Freud, translated by Joyce Crick, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford, published 2008, page 34:
glosses: The amount or quantity observably present, or available.
examples: text: The quantum of light energy was later called a photon.
ref: 2002, David C Cassidy et al., Understanding Physics, Birkhauser, page 602:
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: The smallest possible, and therefore indivisible, unit of a given quantity or quantifiable phenomenon.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The amount of time allocated for a thread to perform its work in a multithreaded environment.
examples: text: Developing for quantum has never been more accessible.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Ellipsis of quantum computing.
topics: medicine
sciences
synonyms: infectious dose
glosses: The minimum dose of a pathogen required to cause an infection.
examples: text: Defined parts of a manifoldness are called Quanta
ref: 1882, William Kingdon Clifford, Mathematical Papers:
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A definite portion of a manifoldness, limited by a mark or by a boundary.
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 singularity
quantum state tomography
quantum weirdness
time quantum