quan ‧ ti ‧ fy /ˈkwɒntəfaɪ, ˈkwɒntɪfaɪ $ ˈkwɑːn-/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle quantified , present participle quantifying , third person singular quantifies ) [transitive]
[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Language: Medieval Latin ; Origin: quantificare , from Latin quantus ; ⇨ ↑ quantity ]
to calculate the value of something and express it as a number or an amount:
an attempt to quantify the region’s social and economic decline
difficult/impossible to quantify
The damage caused to the tourist industry is difficult to quantify.
—quantifiable adjective :
The cost of unemployment to the government is quite easily quantifiable.
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THESAURUS
▪ calculate formal to find out an amount, price, or value by adding numbers together:
The students calculated the cost of printing 5000 copies of their book.
▪ work out to calculate something. Work out is less formal than calculate , and is more common in everyday English:
You need to work out how much you will need to borrow.
▪ figure out ( also figure American English ) informal to calculate an amount:
We still haven't figured out how much it's all going to cost.
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the method for figuring welfare payments
▪ count to find out the total number of things or people in a group by looking at each one and adding them all together:
The teacher counted the children as they got on the bus.
▪ total ( also total up ) to add a number of things together to get a final number:
Once the scores have been totaled, we will announce the winner.
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Okay, now let's total up who had the most points.
▪ quantify formal to say how much something costs, how much of it there is, how serious or effective it is etc:
I think it's difficult to quantify the cost at the moment, for a variety of reasons.
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How do you quantify the benefits of the treatment?
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a reliable method for quantifying the amount of calcium in the blood
▪ assess formal to calculate what the value or cost of something is, or decide how good, bad etc something is:
The value of the paintings was assessed at $20 million.
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They are still assessing the damage.
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We need to have a better way of assessing students' progress.
▪ estimate to guess an amount, price, or number as exactly as you can, based on the knowledge you have:
The police department estimates that the number of violent crimes will decrease by 2%.
▪ put a figure on something to say what you think the exact total amount or value of something is, especially when it is a lot:
It's hard to put a figure on it, but the final cost is likely to be over £225 million.
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The company has refused to put a figure on its losses.
▪ project to calculate what an amount will be in the future, using the information you have now:
The company projects sales of $4 million this year.