What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Amount vs Alot - What's the difference?

amount | alot |

As nouns the difference between amount and alot

is that amount is the total, aggregate or sum of material (not applicable to discrete numbers or units or items in standard english) while alot is .

As a verb amount

is to total or evaluate.

As an adverb alot is

.

amount

English

(Quantity)

Noun

(en noun)
  • The total, aggregate or sum of material (not applicable to discrete numbers or units or items in standard English).
  • A quantity or volume.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)
  • , volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives.
  • The number (the sum) of elements in a set.
  • * 2001 , Gisella Gori, Towards an EU right to education , page 195:
  • The final amount of students who have participated to mobility for the period 1995-1999 is held to be around 460 000.

    Derived terms

    * principal amount * notional amount

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To total or evaluate.
  • It amounts to three dollars and change.
  • To be the same as or equivalent to.
  • He was a pretty good student, but never amounted to much professionally.
    His response amounted to gross insubordination
  • (obsolete) To go up; to ascend.
  • * Spenser
  • So up he rose, and thence amounted straight.

    Derived terms

    * amount to

    See also

    * extent * magnitude * measurement * number * quantity * size

    alot

    English

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Noun

    (-)
  • * 2000 , Teaching Secondary English, ed. Daniel Sheridan. [in a tenth-grade student's paper]
  • There was alot' of sex discrimination in the 60’s. For one thing there was no sports for girls and in ' alot of schools the female teachers were not allowed to get married or they could be fired. [http://print.google.com/print?id=ejtdcf-taQkC&pg=PA346&lpg=PA346&sig=t0Sp87KqxsH-UGYklzl72NMUz1Q]
  • * 2003 , Matt Janacone, Three by the Sea [http://print.google.com/print?id=CesAE2xl68QC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&sig=X8TjIfaBBBesXWW1E38K-BUtUPU]
  • It was alot' of lumber, '''alot''' of condos, and Joe did not know '''alot''' about either of them, only that it was '''alot''' of money; he hated to throw his money into something he did not know ' alot about.
  • * 2005 , Aphrodite Jones, Cruel Sacrifice [From the suicidal patient's own writing.] [http://print.google.com/print?id=KtlMQCtBzygC&pg=PA248&lpg=PA248&sig=2mA_bCMZr0l0dCLfhRWe4cBdmd4]
  • She talked about death: “My philosophy on life is it could be alot' better. Like I would’ve never gotten into this mess if I wouldn’t have tried to commit suicide. Actually I was just trying to make myself sick. But then again it could be '''''alot worse! [...]”

    Usage notes

    This spelling of "a lot" is frequent in informal writing but not generally accepted by arbiters of English usage. Others view it as a legitimate s. * 1993 , The Columbia Guide to Standard American English'' calls ''alot “substandard” and notes that it is “increasingly found in Informal correspondence and student writing” and “has as yet received no sanction in print except on the op-ed and sports pages.” [http://books.google.com/books?id=L2ChiO2yEZ0C&q=alot * 1996 , The American Heritage Book of English Usage'' states that “''alot'' is still considered an error in print” but notes that standard words have formed by fusion of the article with a noun, such as ''another'' and ''awhile,'' and suggests the possibility that ''alot may, like them, eventually enter standard usage. [http://www.bartleby.com/64/C003/0200.html] * 2004 , Jack Lynch Guide to Grammar and Style (entry dated 2004) flatly states this to be a two-word expression. [http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/a.html
  • alot]
  • * 2004 , The Cambridge Guide to English Usage'' also compares ''alot'' to ''awhile.'' It states ''alot'' to be “still regarded as nonstandard” and notes 50 appearances in the British National Corpus, “almost entirely from three sources: e-mail, TV autocue data, and TV newscripts.” It suggests that some usages of ''alot'' in typewritten use are to be considered merely typos of the standard ''a lot though its appearance in handwriting and typescript is “more significant, as the shadow of things to come.” [http://print.google.com/print?id=UA5syoe1kc0C&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&sig=rtyA7J19FLKXuJ-65S78fDEnON8]

    Anagrams

    * ----