# Dimension vs Metric - What's the difference?

dimension | metric |

## As nouns the difference between dimension and metric

is that dimension is dimension while metric is a measure for something; a means of deriving a quantitative measurement or approximation for otherwise qualitative phenomena (especially used in software engineering).

## As an adjective metric is

of or relating to the metric system of measurement.

## As a verb metric is

to measure or analyse statistical data concerning the quality or effectiveness of a process.

# dimension

## English

(wikipedia dimension)

### Noun

(en noun)
• A single aspect of a given thing.
• A measure of spatial extent in a particular direction, such as height, width or breadth, or depth.
• * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
• , author=Robert L. Dorit , title=Rereading Darwin , volume=100, issue=1, page=23 , magazine= citation , passage=We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.}}
• A construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished.
• (geometry) The number of independent coordinates needed to specify uniquely the location of a point in a space; also, any of such independent coordinates.
• (linear algebra) The number of elements of any basis of a vector space.
• (physics) One of the physical properties that are regarded as fundamental measures of a physical quantity, such as mass, length and time.
• The dimension of velocity is length divided by time.
• (computing) Any of the independent ranges of indices in a multidimensional array.
• (science fiction, fantasy) An alternative universe or plane of existence.
• #### Synonyms

* (single aspect of a thing ): aspect * (measure of spatial extent ): magnitude, proportion, size, scope * (construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished ): attribute, property

#### Derived terms

* * * * correlation dimension * dimensional * dimensional analysis * dimensional shingle * exterior dimension * four-dimensional * fourth dimension * fractal dimension * Hamel dimension * Hausdorff dimension * information dimension * isoperimetric dimension * Kaplan-Yorke dimension * Krull dimension * Lebesgue covering dimension * Lyapunov dimension * multidimensional * one-dimensional * pointwise dimension * poset dimension * q-dimension * third dimension * three-dimensional * transdimensional

### Verb

(en verb)
• To mark, cut or shape something to specified dimensions.
• # metric

## English

(wikipedia metric)

(-)
• of or relating to the metric system of measurement
• (music) of or relating to the meter of a piece of music.
• (mathematics, physics) Of or relating to distance
• #### Derived terms

* metric carat * metric level * metric system * metric space * metric structure * contrametric * extrametric * intrametric * metrical

### Noun

(en noun)
• A measure for something; a means of deriving a quantitative measurement or approximation for otherwise qualitative phenomena (especially used in Software Engineering)
• * 2011 , April 10, Financial Times
• As for the large number of official statements that Spain is safe, I think they are merely a metric of the complacency that has characterised the European crisis from the start.
• * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
• , title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric , gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.}}
What metric should be used for performance evaluation?
It's the most important single metric that quantifies the predictive performance.
''How to measure marketing? Use these key metrics for measuring marketing effectiveness.
There is a lack of standard metrics .
• (mathematics) A measurement of the "distance" between two points in some metric space: it is a real-valued function d''(''x'',''y'') between points ''x'' and ''y satisfying the following properties: (1) "positive definiteness": $d\left(x,y\right) \ge 0$ and $d\left(x,y\right) = 0 \mbox\left\{ iff \right\} x=y$, (2) "symmetry": $d\left(x,y\right) = d\left(y,x\right)$, and (3) "triangle inequality": $d\left(x,y\right) \le d\left(x,z\right) + d\left(z,y\right)$.
• * 2014 , Wikipedia,
• In mathematics, a metric' or distance function is a function that defines a distance between elements of a set. A set with a ' metric is called a metric space.

* measure

#### Hyponyms

* Euclidean metric * Hausdorff metric * uniform metric * ultrametric

#### Derived terms

* landscape metrics * performance metric * success metric

### Verb

• To measure or analyse statistical data concerning the quality or effectiveness of a process.
• we need to metric the status of software documentation
we need to metric the verification of requirements
we need to metric the system failures
the project manager is metricking the closure of the action items
customer satisfaction was metricked by the marketing department