Definition

1. Noun:
   • Relative size, extent, or importance: The property of being large, significant, or of a certain scale, whether physical or abstract.
   • A numerical measure of brightness or size: Specifically in astronomy, a number on a logarithmic scale denoting the brightness of a star. In mathematics and science, a number assigned to express a quantity or a ratio.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.2 on the Richter scale.
  • We underestimated the magnitude of the task.
  • Astronomers measure the magnitude of stars; a lower number indicates a brighter star.

Advanced Usage

• "Of the first magnitude": Of the greatest importance, size, or seriousness.
  • The corruption scandal was a problem of the first magnitude for the government.
• "Order of magnitude": A class in a system of classification determined by size, typically where each class is a factor of ten larger or smaller than the next.
  • The new processor is an order of magnitude faster than the old one.

Variants and Related Words

• Magnitudinal (adj): Pertaining to magnitude (rarely used).
• Magnify (verb): To make something appear larger or more important.
  • A telescope magnifies distant objects.

Synonyms

• Size: The physical dimensions or extent of something.
• Scale: The relative level or degree of something.
• Importance: The quality of being significant or having consequence.
• Amplitude: Greatness of size or magnitude, often used in physics.

Related Phrases

• Absolute magnitude: (Astronomy) The intrinsic brightness of a celestial object.
• Apparent magnitude: (Astronomy) The brightness of a celestial object as seen from Earth.

Noun

1. relative importance
   • a problem of the first magnitude
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
3. the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small)
   • they tried to predict the magnitude of the explosion
   • about the magnitude of a small pea