Amount
nounA quantity or total of something, especially a sum of money.
How to spell amount
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce amount
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does amount mean?
- nounA quantity or total of something, especially a sum of money.
- verbTo add up to a particular total, or to be equivalent to something.
Amount in a sentence
-
noun
The invoice listed the full amount due at the end of the month.
-
verb
The unpaid bills will amount to several thousand pounds.
-
noun
A small amount of salt improves the flavour of the soup.
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verb
His vague excuses amount to an admission of guilt.
Where does amount come from?
Language of origin: French
This word travelled into English from the Old French verb amonter, meaning 'to rise' or 'to go up', which was built on the phrase a mont, literally 'to the mountain' or 'upward'. The root sits in the Latin ad montem, combining ad 'to' with mons, montem 'mountain', so the original image was of something climbing or piling up to a height. English borrowed it in the 1200s as a verb meaning 'to rise to' or 'to add up to', and the noun sense of a total quantity grew naturally out of that idea of things mounting together. The same Latin mons gives us 'mountain', 'mount', and even 'paramount', so the family shares the notion of rising high. Knowing the hidden 'mount' inside the word helps fix the spelling: it is a- plus mount, not 'ammount' with a doubled m.
How the word is built
- a- (from Latin ad, meaning 'to')
- mount (from Latin mons, montem, meaning 'mountain' or 'upward rise')
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