quantifier
noun
Simple meaning
A symbol or symbols in a regular expression indicating the number of characters to be matched.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kwahntihfyerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkwɑntɪfaɪɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
grammar
A word that expresses a quantity (as `fifteen' or `many')
computing
A symbol or symbols in a regular expression indicating the number of characters to be matched.
logic
An operator, such as the universal quantifier (written as ∀) or the existential quantifier (∃), used in predicate calculus to indicate the degree that predicate is true for a specified set.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A word that expresses a quantity (as `fifteen' or `many')
Used this way, quantifier is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a grammar or language-study use: it describes how language works, so it appears in teaching and reference writing.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
- Education/classroom
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A logical quantifier of a proposition that asserts the existence of at least one thing for which the proposition is true.
A word (such as `some' or `all' or `no') that binds the variables in a logical proposition.
A logical quantifier of a proposition that asserts that the proposition is true for all members of a class of things.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A limitation imposed on the variables of a proposition (as by the quantifiers `some' or `all' or `no').
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.