MAGNITUDE

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin magnitudo, from magnus Date: 15th century 1. great size or extent, b. spatial quality ; size , quantity , number , the importance, quality, or caliber of something, a number representing the intrinsic or apparent brightness of a celestial body on a logarithmic scale in which an increase of one unit corresponds to a reduction in the brightness of light by a factor of 2.512, a numerical quantitative measure expressed usually as a multiple of a standard unit, the intensity of an earthquake represented by a number on an arbitrary scale