Standard Lemma guide

quantifier

noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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General-American: /ˈkwɑn.tɪ.faɪ.ɚ/
General-American: /ˈkwɑn.tə.faɪ.ɚ/
US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

noun

Meaning 1

A word, such as all or many, that expresses the quantity of a related noun.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 2

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.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, logic, mathematics, philosophy, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 3

A symbol or symbols in a regular expression indicating the number of characters to be matched.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 4

(grammar) a word that expresses a quantity (as `fifteen' or `many')

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: word

Narrower terms: universal quantifier

noun

Meaning 5

(logic) a word (such as `some' or `all' or `no') that binds the variables in a logical proposition

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: logical quantifier

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: word

Narrower terms: existential quantifier, existential operator

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kw- Proto-Indo-European *kwos? Proto-Indo-European *-onts? Proto-Indo-European *kwoider.? Proto-Italic *kwāntos Latin quantus Proto-Indo-European *dheh1-der. Proto-Italic *θakos Proto-Italic *-fakos Latin -ficus Proto-Indo-European *-h2 Proto-Indo-European *-éh2 Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh2yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h2tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin -ficō Medieval Latin quantificōder. English quantify Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English quantifier From quantify + -er.

Across languages

Translations

45 source translations are retained for this English entry.

Arabic: مُحَدِدْ الْكَمِيَّةْ (muḥadid al-kamiyyat) — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Chinese Mandarin: 量词 (liàngcí) — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
French: quantificateur — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Greek: ποσοδείκτης (posodeíktis) — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Irish: cainníochtóir — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Japanese: 数量詞 (sūryōshi) — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Latin: quantificātor — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Polish: kwantyfikator — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Portuguese: quantificador — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Romanian: cuantificator — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Russian: квантифика́тор (kvantifikátor) — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Vietnamese: lượng từ — a word, such as all or many, that expresses a quantity
Basque: zenbatzaile — a logical operator
Bulgarian: квантор (kvantor) — a logical operator
Catalan: quantificador — a logical operator
Chinese Mandarin: 量词 (liàngcí) — a logical operator
Czech: kvantifikátor — a logical operator
Danish: kvantor — a logical operator
Dutch: kwantor — a logical operator
Esperanto: kvantizanto — a logical operator
Esperanto: kvantigilo — a logical operator
Finnish: kvanttori — a logical operator
French: quantificateur — a logical operator
German: Quantor — a logical operator
German: Quantifikator — a logical operator
Greek: ποσοδείκτης (posodeíktis) — a logical operator
Hebrew: כמת — a logical operator
Hungarian: kvantor — a logical operator
Interlingua: quantificator — a logical operator
Italian: quantificatore — a logical operator
Japanese: 量化子 (ryōkashi) — a logical operator
Kazakh: квантор (kvantor) — a logical operator
Korean: 양화 (yanghwa) — a logical operator
Kyrgyz: квантор (kvantor) — a logical operator
Polish: kwantyfikator — a logical operator
Portuguese: quantificador — a logical operator
Russian: квантор (kvantor) — a logical operator
Serbo-Croatian: kvantifikator — a logical operator
Slovak: kvantifikátor — a logical operator
Slovak: kvantor — a logical operator
Spanish: cuantificador — a logical operator
Swedish: kvantifikator — a logical operator
Swedish: kvantor — a logical operator
Turkish: niceleme — a logical operator
Ukrainian: квантор (kvantor) — a logical operator

Word forms

Inflections and variants

quantifiers — plural

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: existential quantifier, quant, quantifier elimination, self-quantifier, universal quantifier

Related: quantification, quantify, quantity, number, calculus, frequency, commonness, size, each and every, every single, every last, all, every, each, all but one, nearly all, almost all, most, more than half of, the majority of, a great many, many, several, some, few, multiple, hardly any, almost no, no, none, transfinitely many, infinitely many, finitely many, a lot of, the better part of, the greater part of, a great deal of, much, ∀, ∃, zero, one, two, three, four, five, innumerable, zillion, full, non-empty, empty, complete, incomplete, by everyone, universally, generally, widely, commonly, usually, by many people, sometimes, by some people, by no one, never, everyone, everybody, nearly everyone, the majority of people, most people, many people, some people, hardly anyone, almost no one, no one, nobody, everywhere, almost everywhere, at most places, at many places, at some places, at few places, almost nowhere, hardly anywhere, nowhere, everything, nearly everything, most things, many things, few things, some things, hardly anything, almost nothing, nothing, overwhelming majority, vast majority, great majority, large majority, majority, plain majority, large minority, substantial minority, minority, small minority, tiny minority, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 4. Unsubstantiality, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 78. Generality, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 100. Plurality, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 101. Zero, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 102. Multitude, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 103. Fewness, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 105. Infinity, grammar, logic

Semantic map

Other relationships

Hypernyms: determiner, word

Hyponyms: universal quantifier, existential quantifier, existential operator

Sources

Where this information comes from

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Real reading context

Meaning relationships

Meaning relationships

Meaning relationships

Meaning relationships

Meaning relationships

quantifier in complete knowledge articles