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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

quantum

/ˈkwɑntəm/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:55
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Begin with k followed by w.

Keep the opening consonants together before the strongest vowel. The final syllable is light, with a relaxed vowel before m rather than an equally strong beat.

2 syllables · Stress on syllable 1

TRY SAYING
He is studying quantum mechanics.

APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

What does quantum mean?

noun

  1. The total amount of something; quantity.
  2. The amount of compensation awarded to a successful party in a lawsuit.
  3. The length or magnitude of the sentence handed down to someone who has been found guilty of a crime.
More meanings (11)

noun

  1. The amount or quantity observably present, or available.
  2. The smallest possible, and therefore indivisible, unit of a given quantity or quantifiable phenomenon.
  3. The amount of time allocated for a thread to perform its work in a multithreaded environment.
  4. Ellipsis of quantum computing.
  5. The minimum dose of a pathogen required to cause an infection.
  6. Amount of goods produced or demanded.
  7. A definite portion of a manifoldness, limited by a mark or by a boundary.

adjective

  1. Of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages.
  2. (informal) Of a change, significant.
  3. Involving quanta, quantum mechanics or other aspects of quantum physics.
  4. Relating to a quantum computer.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈkwɑntəm/

Pronunciation used in the listening tip.

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

“O Jane, a tergo quern nulls ciconia pinsit, Nec manus, auriculas imitari est mobilis albas, Nec lingua, quantum sitiat canis Appula, tantum.”
Michel de MontaigneEssays of Michel de Montaigne — CompleteTranslated by Charles CottonProject Gutenberg ebook #3600
The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum of the means of subsistence, which is absolutely requisite in bare existence as a labourer.
Karl Marx; Friedrich EngelsThe Communist ManifestoProject Gutenberg ebook #61
More book examples (3)
Mechanism only transmutes labour, being powerless to abstract it, and the original quantum of exertion was not cleared away; it was thrown into the body and arms.
Thomas HardyFar from the Madding CrowdProject Gutenberg ebook #27
Wit, valour, and politeness, were likewise proposed to be largely taxed, and collected in the same manner, by every person’s giving his own word for the quantum of what he possessed.
Jonathan SwiftGulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the WorldProject Gutenberg ebook #829
There are few more grotesque pictures in the history of civilisation than that of the compulsory attendance of children at school, faint with hunger because they had no breakfast, and not sure whether they would even secure a dry crust for dinner when their morning's quantum of education had been duly imparted.
William BoothIn Darkest England, and the Way OutProject Gutenberg ebook #475