määrää

Määrä is a Finnish noun meaning amount, quantity, or extent. It refers to a measurable size of something and can denote both numerical counts and portions of a substance. In everyday language, määrä is common with uncountable nouns (for example, a large amount of water) as well as with countable items when the sense is about a total. For example, “Määrä osallistujia oli kaksikymmentä” means the number of participants was twenty.

Etymology and related forms: The word stems from the verb määrätä, meaning “to determine” or “to set.” Related terms in Finnish include määräaika (fixed term), and määräys (order or directive), reflecting the broad semantic field of determining or fixing extent.

Usage notes: When referring to a precise count of discrete items, Finnish often useslukumäärä, a specialized form meaning numerical count (for example, “Lipun lukumäärä on kaksisataa”). For general quantities and portions, määrä is natural, while in technical or scientific language the term suure is commonly used as the standard word for a physical quantity or magnitude; määrää tends to be more colloquial or general in everyday speech.

Context and nuance: Määrä can be used across domains such as commerce, law, and statistics to express size, extent, or amount. It is not a fixed unit itself but a generic descriptor that can pair with numerals, measurements, or qualitative expressions (as in “suuri määrä,” “pieni määrä,” etc.).

See also: lukumäärä, määräaika, määräys, suure.