Adjacent Words

Volume definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VOL'UME, n. [L. volumen, a roll; volvo, to roll. to make u long, in this word, is palpably wrong.]
1. Primarily a roll, as the ancients wrote on long strips of bark, parchment or other material, which they formed into rolls or folds. Of such volumes, Ptolemy's library in Alexandria contained 3 or 700,000.
2. A roll or turn; as much as is included in a roll or coil; as the volume of a serpent.
3. Dimensions; compass; space occupied; as the volume of an elephant's body; a volume of gas.
4. A swelling or spherical body.
The undulating billows rolling their silver volumes.
5. A book; a collection of sheets of paper, usually printed or written paper, folded and bound, or covered. A book consisting of sheets once folded, is called a folio, or a folio volume; of sheets twice folded, a quarto; and thus according to the number of leaves in a sheet, it is called an octavo, or a duodecimo. The Scriptures or sacred writings, bound in a single volume, are called the Bible. The number of volumes in the Royal Library, in rue de Richlieu, at Paris, is variously estimated. It is probable it may amount to 400,000.
An odd volume of a set of books, bears not the value of its proportion to the set.
6. In music, the compass of a voice from grave to acute; the tone or power of voice.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the amount of 3-dimensional space occupied by an object; "the gas expanded to twice its original volume"
2: the property of something that is great in magnitude; "it is cheaper to buy it in bulk"; "he received a mass of correspondence"; "the volume of exports" [syn: bulk, mass, volume]
3: physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound together; "he used a large book as a doorstop" [syn: book, volume]
4: a publication that is one of a set of several similar publications; "the third volume was missing"; "he asked for the 1989 volume of the Annual Review"
5: a relative amount; "mix one volume of the solution with ten volumes of water"
6: the magnitude of sound (usually in a specified direction); "the kids played their music at full volume" [syn: volume, loudness, intensity] [ant: softness]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin volumen roll, scroll, from volvere to roll Date: 14th century 1. a. a series of printed sheets bound typically in book form ; book b. a series of issues of a periodical c. album 1c 2. scroll 1a 3. the amount of space occupied by a three-dimensional object as measured in cubic units (as quarts or liters) ; cubic capacity — see metric system table, weight table 4. a. (1) amount; also bulk, mass (2) a considerable quantity b. the amount of a substance occupying a particular volume c. mass or the representation of mass in art or architecture 5. the degree of loudness or the intensity of a sound; also loudness Synonyms: see bulk • volumed adjective II. verb (volumed; voluming) Date: 1815 transitive verb to send or give out in volume intransitive verb to roll or rise in volume III. adjective Date: circa 1945 involving large quantities <offered volume discounts>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a a set of sheets of paper, usu. printed, bound together and forming part or the whole of a work or comprising several works (issued in three volumes; a library of 12,000 volumes). b hist. a scroll of papyrus etc., an ancient form of book. 2 a solid content, bulk. b the space occupied by a gas or liquid. c (foll. by of) an amount or quantity (large volume of business). 3 a quantity or power of sound. b fullness of tone. 4 (foll. by of) a a moving mass of water etc. b (usu. in pl.) a wreath or coil or rounded mass of smoke etc. Derivatives: volumed adj. (also in comb.). Etymology: ME f. OF volum(e) f. L volumen -minis roll f. volvere to roll

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Volume Vol"ume, n. [F., from L. volumen a roll of writing, a book, volume, from volvere, volutum, to roll. See Voluble.] 1. A roll; a scroll; a written document rolled up for keeping or for use, after the manner of the ancients. [Obs.] The papyrus, and afterward the parchment, was joined together [by the ancients] to form one sheet, and then rolled upon a staff into a volume (volumen). --Encyc. Brit. 2. Hence, a collection of printed sheets bound together, whether containing a single work, or a part of a work, or more than one work; a book; a tome; especially, that part of an extended work which is bound up together in one cover; as, a work in four volumes. An odd volume of a set of books bears not the value of its proportion to the set. --Franklin. 4. Anything of a rounded or swelling form resembling a roll; a turn; a convolution; a coil. So glides some trodden serpent on the grass, And long behind wounded volume trails. --Dryden. Undulating billows rolling their silver volumes. --W. Irving. 4. Dimensions; compass; space occupied, as measured by cubic units, that is, cubic inches, feet, yards, etc.; mass; bulk; as, the volume of an elephant's body; a volume of gas. 5. (Mus.) Amount, fullness, quantity, or caliber of voice or tone. Atomic volume, Molecular volume (Chem.), the ratio of the atomic and molecular weights divided respectively by the specific gravity of the substance in question. Specific volume (Physics & Chem.), the quotient obtained by dividing unity by the specific gravity; the reciprocal of the specific gravity. It is equal (when the specific gravity is referred to water at 4[deg] C. as a standard) to the number of cubic centimeters occupied by one gram of the substance.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(volumes) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. The volume of something is the amount of it that there is. Senior officials will be discussing how the volume of sales might be reduced. ...the sheer volume of traffic and accidents. N-COUNT: usu sing, usu N of n 2. The volume of an object is the amount of space that it contains or occupies. When egg whites are beaten they can rise to seven or eight times their original volume. N-COUNT: usu sing 3. A volume is a book. (FORMAL) ...a 125-page volume. N-COUNT 4. A volume is one book in a series of books. ...the first volume of his autobiography. N-COUNT: usu supp N 5. A volume is a collection of several issues of a magazine, for example all the issues for one year. ...bound volumes of the magazine. N-COUNT: usu with supp 6. The volume of a radio, television, or sound system is the loudness of the sound it produces. He turned down the volume... He came to complain about the volume of the music. 7. If something such as an action speaks volumes about a person or thing, it gives you a lot of information about them. What you wear speaks volumes about you... PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR about n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

vol'-um: This word (from Latin volvere, "roll"), twice used in the King James Version (Ps 40:7 (Hebrew meghillah); Heb 10:7), is better in English as "roll" in the Revised Version (British and American).

See ROLL.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Convolution, turn, contortion, whirl. 2. Book, tome. 3. Dimensions, bulk, mass, compass, body. 4. (Geom.) Solid contents. 5. (Mus.) Power, quantity, fulness.

Moby Thesaurus

abundance, accommodation, acreage, acres, aggregate, amount, amplitude, area, armful, article, back number, bagful, bags, barrelful, barrels, basketful, best seller, bigness, binful, body, book, bottleful, bound book, bowlful, breadth, bulk, burden, bushel, caliber, capacity, capful, caseful, chapter, classic, clause, collection, coloring book, column, content, continuum, copiousness, copy, cordage, countlessness, coverage, crescendo, definitive work, depth, diameter, dimension, dimensions, edition, emptiness, empty space, expanse, expansion, extension, extent, fascicle, field, flood, folio, fullness, galactic space, gauge, girth, great work, greatness, handful, hardback, height, impression, infinite space, installment, intensity, interstellar space, issue, juvenile, juvenile book, kettleful, lapful, largeness, length, library, library edition, limit, limp-cover book, livraison, load, loudishness, loudness, magnitude, magnum opus, mass, measure, measurement, mountain, mouthful, much, multitude, nonbook, notebook, nothingness, novel, number, numerousness, object, ocean, oceans, opus, opuscule, opusculum, outer space, paperback, paragraph, part, passage, peck, phrase, picture book, playbook, plenitude, plenty, pocket book, poundage, prayer book, printing, production, profusion, proportion, proportions, psalmbook, psalter, publication, quantities, quantity, radius, range, reach, room, scale, school edition, scope, sea, section, serial, series, set, size, sketchbook, soft-cover, songbook, sonority, sonorousness, space, spate, spatial extension, sphere, spread, standard work, storybook, stowage, sum total, superabundance, superficial extension, superfluity, supply, surface, surge, surge of sound, swell, swelling, title, tome, tonnage, tons, tract, trade book, trade edition, verse, void, width, work, world, worlds, writing