(quantities)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is an amount that you can measure or count.
...a small ~ of water.
...vast quantities of food...
Cheap goods are available, but not in sufficient quantities to satisfy demand...
N-VAR
2.
Things that are produced or available in ~ are produced or available in large amounts.
After some initial problems, acetone was successfully produced in ~...
N-UNCOUNT
3.
You can use ~ to refer to the amount of something that there is, especially when you want to contrast it with its quality.
...the less discerning drinker who prefers ~ to quality...
= amount
N-UNCOUNT
4.
If you say that someone or something is an unknown ~, you mean that not much is known about what they are like or how they will behave.
He is an unknown ~ for his rivals.
PHRASE: v-link PHR