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magnitude

/ˈmæɡnɪtjuːd/noun

magnitude is spelled M-A-G-N-I-T-U-D-E: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,121st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, magnitude means “The absolute or relative size, extent or importance of something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of magnitude is magnitudes.

How many letters and syllables are in magnitude?

Letters9: M-A-G-N-I-T-U-D-E
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing10 times per million words; the 7,121st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is magnitude?

Magnitude appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,121st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce magnitude?

  • /ˈmæɡnɪtjuːd/
  • /ˈmæɡnɪt͡ʃuːd/
  • /ˈmæɡnɪtuːd/

Magnitude has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-magnitude.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of magnitude

  • magnitudes plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does magnitude mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The absolute or relative size, extent or importance of something.

  2. 2

    An order of magnitude.

  3. 3

    A number, assigned to something, such that it may be compared to others numerically

  4. 4

    Of a vector, the norm, most commonly, the two-norm.

  5. 5

    The apparent brightness of a star, with lower magnitudes being brighter; apparent magnitude

  6. 6

    A ratio of intensity expressed as a logarithm.

  7. 7

    A measure of the energy released by an earthquake (e.g. on the Richter scale).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate magnitude?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of magnitude: mag.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Magnitude in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchampleur (size, etc), grandeur (number), module (of a vector), magnitude (apparent brightness of a star)
Portuguesegrandeza, magnitude (size, etc)
Spanishmagnitud (size, etc), norma (of a vector)
GermanBetrag (number)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does magnitude come from?

From Latin magnitūdō (“greatness, size”), magnus + -tūdō.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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