Noun

(en noun)

That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […], "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.}}

A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.

An individual object or distinct entity.

(informal) Something that is normal or generally recognised.

(legal) Whatever can be owned.

The latest fad or fashion.

(in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.

(informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.

(informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.

(slang) A penis.

* 1959 , , (Naked Lunch) , 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:

“Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing .”

A living being or creature.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}

That which matters; the crux.

* 1914 , Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man] [playscript:

Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing . (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)

(chiefly, historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.

* 1974 , Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga , translated by Haraldur Bessason, page 46:

In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]

* 1974', Jakob Benediktsson, ''Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis'', in ''Saga Íslands'', quoted in '''1988 by Jesse L. Byock in ''Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 85:

The goðar'' seem both to have received payment of ''thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing , and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.

* 1988 , Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 59:

All Icelandic things were skap-thing , meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.

Noun

(quantities)

A fundamental, generic term used when referring to the measurement (count, amount) of a scalar, vector, number of items or to some other way of denominating the value of a collection or group of items.

You have to choose between quantity and quality.

An indefinite amount of something.

Some soap making oils are best as base oils, used in a larger quantity''' in the soap, while other oils are best added in a small '''quantity .

Olive oil can be used practically in any quantity .

A specific measured amount.

This bag would normally costs $497.50 for a quantity of 250, at a price of $1.99 per piece.

Generally it should not be used in a quantity larger than 15 percent.

A considerable measure or amount.

The Boeing P-26A was the first all-metal monoplane fighter produced in quantity for the U.S. Army Air Corps.

(metrology) Property of a phenomenon, body, or substance, where the property has a magnitude that can be expressed as number and a reference.

(mathematics) Indicates that the entire preceding expression is henceforth considered a single object.

x plus ''y'' quantity squared equals ''x'' squared plus ''2xy'' plus ''y'' squared .

* 2006 , Jerome E. Kaufmann and Karen Schwitters, Elementary and Intermediate Algebra: A Combined Approach , p 89

For problems 58-67, translate each word phrase into an algebraic expression.

(...)

65. x plus 9, the quantity squared

* 2005 , R. Mark Sirkin, Statistics For The Social Sciences , p137

The second, $(\backslash sum\; x)^2$, read "summation of x, quantity squared," tells us to first add up all the xs to get $\backslash sum\; x$ and then square $\backslash sum\; x$ to get $(\backslash sum\; x)^2$.

* 1985 , Serge Lang, Math!: Encounters with High School Students , p54

ANN. $ra$ quantity cubed.

SERGE LANG. That's right, $(ra)^3$.