Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Language: Latin
Origin: magnitudo, from magnus 'great'

magnitude

 noun
     
Related topics: Astronomy, Earth Sciences
mag‧ni‧tude
1 [uncountable] the great size or importance of something
magnitude of
They didn't seem to appreciate the magnitude of the problem.
of such/this/similar etc magnitude
We did not think the cuts would be of this magnitude.
an increase of this order of magnitude (=size)
2 [countable] technical the degree of brightness of a star
3 [countable] technical the force of an earthquake
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
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