kolichestvo

Kolichestvo (количество) is a Russian noun meaning quantity or amount. It denotes the extent, size, or magnitude of something that can be measured or counted. In everyday language it answers questions like “how much?” or “how many?” and is used with nouns that denote substances, objects, or phenomena, for example: kolichestvo vody v butylke (the amount of water in the bottle) or kolichestvo lyudey na sobranii (the number of people at the meeting).

In mathematical and scientific contexts, kolichestvo refers to a measurable property that can be assigned a unit. For example, kolichestvo veshchestva is the amount of a substance, measured in moles; kolichestvo energii refers to an amount of energy, measured in joules. Russian technical language distinguishes kolichestvennye dannye (quantitative data) from kachestvennye dannye (qualitative data). In everyday usage, kolichestvo can mean the count of discrete items, whereas число (number) typically denotes a purely numeric value.

In physics the precise term for a measurable property is often velichina (physical quantity). The phrase kolichestvo dvizheniya appears in older or historical texts as a synonym for momentum, though modern terminology usually uses impul’s or moment impul’sa.

See also: quantity, amount, magnitude, measurement, fizičeskaya velichina, quantitative data.