Magnitude

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Magnitude \Mag"ni*tude\, n. [L. magnitudo, from magnus great.
     See {Master}, and cf. {Maxim}.]
     1. Extent of dimensions; size; -- applied to things that have
        length, breadth, and thickness.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              Conceive those particles of bodies to be so disposed
              amongst themselves, that the intervals of empty
              spaces between them may be equal in magnitude to
              them all.                             --Sir I.
                                                    Newton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Geom.) That which has one or more of the three
        dimensions, length, breadth, and thickness.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Anything of which greater or less can be predicated, as
        time, weight, force, and the like.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Greatness; grandeur. "With plain, heroic magnitude of
        mind." --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. Greatness, in reference to influence or effect;
        importance; as, an affair of magnitude.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The magnitude of his designs.         --Bp. Horsley.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. (Astron.) See {magnitude of a star}, below.
        [PJC]
  
     {Apparent magnitude}
  
     1. (Opt.), the angular breadth of an object viewed as
        measured by the angle which it subtends at the eye of the
        observer; -- called also {apparent diameter}.
  
     2. (Astron.) Same as {magnitude of a star}, below.
  
     {Magnitude of a star} (Astron.), the rank of a star with
        respect to brightness. About twenty very bright stars are
        said to be of first magnitude, the stars of the sixth
        magnitude being just visible to the naked eye; called also
        {visual magnitude}, {apparent magnitude}, and simply
        {magnitude}. Stars observable only in the telescope are
        classified down to below the twelfth magnitude. The
        difference in actual brightness between magnitudes is now
        specified as a factor of 2.512, i.e. the difference in
        brightness is 100 for stars differing by five magnitudes.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  magnitude
       n 1: the property of relative size or extent; "they tried to
            predict the magnitude of the explosion"
       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 [syn: {order of magnitude}]
       3: relative importance; "a problem of the first magnitude"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  125 Moby Thesaurus words for "magnitude":
     Beehive, Cepheid variable, Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, Hyades,
     Messier catalog, NGC, Pleiades, Seven Sisters, absolute magnitude,
     amount, ampleness, amplitude, area, bigness, binary star,
     black hole, body, boundlessness, breadth, bulk, caliber,
     consequence, coverage, depth, diameter, dimension, dimensions,
     double star, dwarf star, enormity, enormousness, expanse,
     expansion, extension, extent, fixed star, force, formidableness,
     fullness, gauge, giant star, gigantism, girth, globular cluster,
     grandeur, grandness, gravity star, great scope, greatness, height,
     hugeness, immensity, import, importance, infinity, intensity,
     largeness, length, main sequence star, mass, mass-luminosity law,
     matter, measure, measurement, might, mightiness, moment,
     momentousness, muchness, neighborhood, neutron star, note, nova,
     numbers, open cluster, order, pith, plenitude, populations, power,
     prodigiousness, proportion, proportions, pulsar, quantity, quantum,
     quasar, quasi-stellar radio source, radio star, radius, range,
     reach, red giant star, relative magnitude, scale, scope,
     significance, signification, size, sky atlas,
     spectrum-luminosity diagram, spread, star, star catalog,
     star chart, star cloud, star cluster, stellar magnitude, strength,
     stupendousness, substance, sum, supernova, tour de force,
     tremendousness, tune, variable star, vastness, vicinity, volume,
     weight, weightiness, white dwarf star, whole, width
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  MAGNITUDE, n.  Size.  Magnitude being purely relative, nothing is
  large and nothing small.  If everything in the universe were increased
  in bulk one thousand diameters nothing would be any larger than it was
  before, but if one thing remain unchanged all the others would be
  larger than they had been.  To an understanding familiar with the
  relativity of magnitude and distance the spaces and masses of the
  astronomer would be no more impressive than those of the microscopist. 
  For anything we know to the contrary, the visible universe may be a
  small part of an atom, with its component ions, floating in the life-
  fluid (luminiferous ether) of some animal.  Possibly the wee creatures
  peopling the corpuscles of our own blood are overcome with the proper
  emotion when contemplating the unthinkable distance from one of these
  to another.