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A Dozen Nonnumerical Words for Quantities
The English language has, well, a number of words that denote specific or approximate quantities that are themselves not numbers. This post lists and defines a dozen of those words.
1. brace: two, in reference to identical objects
2. century: primarily denotes 100 years, but occasionally used, especially in the context of competitive racing, to refer to something consisting of 100, as in a 100-mile race
3. couple: two, though loosely refers to a few of something
4. decade: primarily denotes 10 years, but occasionally refers to ten of something
5. dozen: twelve (a half dozen, or half a dozen, is six, and a baker’s dozen is thirteen, from the notion that a baker would include an extra item in a batch of twelve so as not to be accused of short-changing a customer)
6. duo: two, in reference to people engaged in an endeavor together, as in musical performance (other words denote three or more people in the same context: trio, quartet, etc.)
7. grand: slang for “1,000”
8. gross: 144, or twelve dozen
9. large: slang for “1,000”
10. myriad: originally, ten thousand, but now loosely refers to a very large quantity
11. pair: two, often in reference to identical objects
12. score: twenty
The English language has, well, a number of words that denote specific or approximate quantities that are themselves not numbers. This post lists and defines a dozen of those words.
1. brace: two, in reference to identical objects
2. century: primarily denotes 100 years, but occasionally used, especially in the context of competitive racing, to refer to something consisting of 100, as in a 100-mile race
3. couple: two, though loosely refers to a few of something
4. decade: primarily denotes 10 years, but occasionally refers to ten of something
5. dozen: twelve (a half dozen, or half a dozen, is six, and a baker’s dozen is thirteen, from the notion that a baker would include an extra item in a batch of twelve so as not to be accused of short-changing a customer)
6. duo: two, in reference to people engaged in an endeavor together, as in musical performance (other words denote three or more people in the same context: trio, quartet, etc.)
7. grand: slang for “1,000”
8. gross: 144, or twelve dozen
9. large: slang for “1,000”
10. myriad: originally, ten thousand, but now loosely refers to a very large quantity
11. pair: two, often in reference to identical objects
12. score: twenty
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
