A difference between two or more numbers or amounts that should be the same

Related words

accumulation

the amount of something that collects or is collected over time

allocation

an amount or share of something that is given to someone or used for a particular purpose

allowance

an amount of something that you are officially allowed by a particular set of rules or by the law

amount

a quantity of something

amount

informal a number of things. Many people consider this use to be incorrect

arithmetic

the number of people or things that are involved in a situation, and the way in which they affect the situation

backlog

an amount of work or other things that you should already have done or dealt with

balance

the amount of something that remains after part has been used

batch

block

an amount of something, or a number of individual things that are considered together as a single object

capacity

the amount of something that can be put in a container, or the number of people that a place has room for

cavalcade

certain of

clump

mainly literary a group of people or things very close together

complement

the number of people or things that something has

concentration

science the amount of a substance that is present in something

count

the amount of a substance that is measured as being present in another substance, for example in your blood or in the air

deduction

an amount or number taken from a total

degree

an amount of something such as a feeling or a quality

demand

economics the amount of a product or service that people want, or the fact that they want it

density

the amount of something in a place

disequilibrium

formal a situation in which there is more of one thing than another so that there is a lack of balance

an amount of something bad that happens to you

a supply of something that continues without stopping

an amount of rain, snow, soil etc that would cover a surface with a layer that is one inch deep

inflow

an amount of something such as money or goods that comes into a place

intake

the amount of something that you eat or drink

investment

the amount of time, energy, or emotion needed in order to make something successful

level

the amount of something, especially when it can be counted or measured

market share

the percentage of the total amount of sales of a particular product that a company has

chemistry the amount of matter that something contains

number

order of magnitude

used to refer to the amount or degree of something

output

the amount of something that a person, organization, system etc produces

overdose

informal an amount of anything that is considered to be too much

overlap

the amount by which things overlap each other

overlay

a noticeable amount of a sound, taste, smell, or feeling that is added to another

some but not all of something

penn’orth

British old-fashioned the amount of something that you can buy with a penny

pennyworth

old-fashioned the amount of something that you can buy with a penny

a number or amount of something available for sharing

proportion

the relationship between two or more quantities or parts of a whole

quantity

the amount of something

quantity

a particular amount of something

quota

economics an amount of something that someone is officially allowed to have or do

quota

an amount of something that someone has to do

quota

informal an amount of something that you expect

range

ratio

refill

another amount of something that is put into a container after it has become empty

saving

an amount of something that you manage to avoid using or spending

scale

the rate at which something is produced, developed etc

several

a number of people or things that is more than two or three, but not many

spread

stock

the total amount of something that is available for people to use

stream

stream

supply

an amount or quantity of something that is available to use

throughput

the amount of work, people, or things that a system deals with in a particular period

tolerance

the amount by which the size of a part of a machine can be different from the standard size before it prevents the machine from operating correctly

two-ply/three-ply etc

used as a measurement of the number of strands in wool, rope, string etc

usage

the amount of something that you use

volume

an amount of something

wastage

the amount of something that is wasted

whack

informal very informal an amount of something, usually money

worth

an amount measured by the time it lasts

yield

an amount of something that is produced

your ration of something

someone’s ration of something such as bad luck is the amount that they are likely to have in their life

Synonyms

difference

something that makes one thing or person not the same as another thing or person

contrast

distinction

variety

variation

diversity

contradiction

a difference in two or more statements, ideas, stories etc that makes it impossible for both or all of them to be true

collision

a very great difference between ideas or beliefs which means that they do not work together

divergence

a difference in the way that two or more things develop from the same thing

a world of difference

a different ball game

a situation that is completely different from what has happened before

anomaly

borderline

an imaginary point dividing one feeling or state from another, where it is hard to tell the difference between the two

boundary

breadth

chasm

a very big difference that separates one person or group from another

clash

a situation in which two people or things are very different from each other so that they cannot exist together or work together

clear blue water

something that separates two people or things or that makes them different from each other

cleavage

formal a division between two groups of people or things

collision

an occasion when two very different things meet or come together

contrast

something that is different from something else in a very noticeable way

counterpoint

something that produces a different effect from something else, especially in an interesting or attractive way

counterpoise

something whose effect is equal and opposite to that of another thing and so prevents it from having too much influence

crosscurrent

something such as a belief, method, or tradition that is different from what is usual or generally accepted

deviation

a difference in the usual or expected way of doing something

dichotomy

difference

the amount by which one thing is different from another thing

differential

disagreement

a difference between things that should be the same

disconnect

discrepancy

a difference between things that should be the same

disparity

disproportion

formal a situation in which things are not equal, or are bigger or smaller than they should be in comparison to each other

dissimilarity

the way in which two people or things are different from each other

distance

distinction

an unusual achievement or feature that makes someone or something different from other people or things

divide

divider

something that creates a difference between people, so that they are not equal

dividing line

something that clearly shows the difference between one idea, subject, or issue and another

division

a difference in the way that people within the same community or country live, how much money they have, how educated they are etc

a strange quality that something such as a piece of music or a book has that makes it interesting or exciting

extravagance

heterogeneity

incongruity

something which seems strange because of being very different to other things which happen or exist in the same situation

inconsistency

something that does not match something else

individuality

the things that make someone or something different from all others

irregularity

a situation in which the rules, laws, or usual ways of doing things have not been followed

meanwhile

mismatch

oddity

a strange or unusual quality in someone or something

one man’s meat is another man’s poison

used for saying that not everyone likes the same things

opposites attract

used for saying that people who are very different are attracted to each other for that reason

polarity

formal a very great difference between opinions, people, or situations that are completely opposed to each other

quirk

something strange that happens for reasons that you do not know or understand

shading

split

unreality

situations or events that are so strange they do not seem to be real

variance

variance

formal differences between two or more similar things

variation

variations

variety is the spice of life

whimsy

How should we calculate difference between two numbers?

if we are told to find the difference between 3 and 5,

Also tell me how can we calculate the difference if we are told to calculate difference between two numbers,-5 and 2 on the number line.

7 Answers 7

Traditionally, the “difference» between two numbers refers to the distance on a number line between the points corresponding to each of the two numbers, a.k.a. the absolute value. Analogously, if you asked “What is the distance from Toronto to Vancouver?” or «What is the distance from Vancouver to Toronto?», you would expect the same answer: the [positive] distance separating the two cities, regardless of the direction of travel.

On the other hand, if asked “What is the result when you subtract 3 from 5?”, you should give a different answer (2) than if you were asked “What is the result if you subtract 5 from 3?” (-2).

As for calculating on the number line:

The term you’re looking to use is «absolute value.»

Imagine the number line as a single axis of a graph plane; a dimension, rather. Number lines are commonly represented in whole numbers, each number representing a scaling increment of that line. Counting the total, positive amount increments between two numbers on the same number line will give you a hands-on approach at discovering absolute value. Absolute value looks like this:

Positive and negative numbers come out as positive after determining absolute value.

I hope this paints a decent picture. I can edit this later with some Photoshopped number lines and other visuals if need be.

Amount vs. Number: What’s the Difference?

Home » Amount vs. Number: What’s the Difference?

Some nouns can be counted individually. A person could count the crayons in a box, the eggs in a carton, or the people on a train. These are called count nouns.

Other nouns can’t be counted individually. A person could not count air, dirt, or happiness. These are called mass nouns.

English has specific words to use in reference to the quantity of mass and count nouns. Amount and number are two such words. Continue reading to discover the difference between them, and to find out whether you should use number or amount.

What is the Difference Between Amount and Number?

In this article, I will compare amount vs. number and their uses. I will use each word in an example sentence to illustrate its proper meaning and context.

Then, I will explain a helpful trick to use when deciding whether to choose amount or number for your writing, depending on context.

When to Use Amount

What does amount mean? Amount can be a noun or a verb.

As a noun, it refers to the quantity of something. Amount is used with mass nouns. In other words, amount should be used with nouns that cannot be counted individually, also called non-count nouns. You cannot count the water in a glass, for instance, or the religious freedom in America.

Here are some examples,

When amount is used as a verb, it means to become or to equal. Here are two examples.

When to Use Number

What does number mean? Number is also a noun or a verb. Like amount, as a noun it refers to the quantity of something. Unlike amount, however, number is used with count nouns.

Count nouns are nouns that could be counted individually. You could not count the sand on the seashore, for instance, but you could conceivably count how many grains of sand are in a small jar. Sand is a mass noun, and a grain is a count noun.

Here are some examples of number used as a noun.

Number can also be a verb, where it means to count or to add up to.

See the following sentences,

Trick to Remember the Difference

Now that we understand the differences, let’s look at a helpful trick to remember number vs. amount.

If you aren’t sure whether to use amount or number, remember that “a” “mount” is used with “a” “mass” noun. Amount and a mass noun both begin with the letters “am.” This should help you keep these words straight.

Summary

Is it amount or number? Amount and number both refer to quantity, but each word has its own specific use.

By remembering the M that is part of the words amount and mass, you can be sure to reserve amount for use with mass nouns.

If you still need help, you can reference this article in the future.

Shortest way to calculate difference between two numbers?

I’m about to do this in C++ but I have had to do it in several languages, it’s a fairly common and simple problem, and this is the last time. I’ve had enough of coding it as I do, I’m sure there must be a better method, so I’m posting here before I write out the same long winded method in yet another language;

Consider the (lilies!) following code;

This may sound petty but that seems like a lot to me, just to get the difference between two numbers. Is this in fact a completely reasonable way of doing things and I’m being unnecessarily pedantic, or is my spidey sense tingling with good reason?

5 Answers 5

Trending sort

Trending sort is based off of the default sorting method — by highest score — but it boosts votes that have happened recently, helping to surface more up-to-date answers.

It falls back to sorting by highest score if no posts are trending.

Switch to Trending sort

Just get the absolute value of the difference:

Using the std::abs() function is one clear way to do this, as others here have suggested.

But perhaps you are interested in succinctly writing this function without library calls.

In your comments, you suggested that you are interested in speed. In that case, you may be interested in ways of performing this operation that do not require branching. This link describes some.

All the existing answers will overflow on extreme inputs, giving undefined behaviour. @craq pointed this out in a comment.

More generally, a signed int is unable to represent the maximum difference between two signed int values. The unsigned int type should be used for the output value.

I see 3 solutions. I’ve used the explicitly-sized integer types from stdint.h here, to close the door on uncertainties like whether long and int are the same size and range.

Solution 1. The low-level way.

I tried a variation on this using bit-twiddling cleverness taken from https://graphics.stanford.edu/

seander/bithacks.html#IntegerMinOrMax but modern code-generators seem to generate worse code with this variation. (I’ve removed the static_assert and the comments.)

Solution 2. The easy way. Avoid overflow by doing the work using a wider signed integer type. This approach can’t be used if the input signed integer type is the largest signed integer type available.

Solution 3. The laborious way. Use flow-control to work through the different cases. Likely to be less efficient.