Sizing and judging — estimates, heights, limits, optima. The words that put honest numbers on things.
Measured from a fixed origin rather than relative to something. Also without exception — both mean not depending on context.
Made faster than its usual pace. Acceleration is a change in rate, not in direction.
How close a measure is to the truth. Distinct from precision, which is only how finely it is stated.
Further along than the standard level. Advancement is relative to a starting point that must be named.
What one side has that the other does not. An advantage is relational and disappears when compared to nothing.
Height above a reference. Also the level of abstraction a discussion is being held at.
The measuring of what a system's users actually did. Analytics answers what happened and never why.
The turn between two lines meeting. Also a chosen point of view — both are about direction relative to something.
A bounded extent of surface. Also a region of concern — both are places marked off from the rest.
To judge worth or condition against a standard. Assessment must name its standard or it is opinion.
A considered judgment of what something is or is worth. An assessment states a view and should state who holds it.
A single value standing for many. An average describes a set and describes no member of it.
A line a thing is measured or turned about. An axis is chosen, and choosing it decides what can be compared.
How much can pass at once. Used of channels and of minds — in both, exceeding it does not slow things, it drops them.
Highest against a stated measure. Nothing is best in general — only for something, and naming that is the honest part.
The lowest part, or the end of a reading order. Position given weight by direction.
In large quantity, handled together. Bulk processing trades individual attention for reach.
To work out a value by fixed steps. Reasoning done so it can be repeated by someone else and reach the same answer.
The working out of a value by fixed steps. Calculation is reasoning done so anyone can repeat it.
An upper limit, and the thing that closes a top. Both stop what would otherwise keep going.
How much a thing can hold or do before it fails. Capacity is a limit that is real whether or not it is acknowledged.
Upper bounds, and the surfaces overhead. Both are what you cannot pass without breaking something.
A count of everything in a population, not a sample. A census claims completeness, which is why it must be checkable.
The point equally far from every edge. A centre is defined entirely by the boundary around it.
To hold a value inside stated bounds. Whatever exceeds the limit becomes the limit.
Taking little room for what it holds. Also an agreement between parties — both are things drawn tight.
The state of nothing being missing. Completeness is a claim requiring a check, since a set can feel whole and not be.
How many parts interact, and how tangled their interaction is. Complexity is not difficulty; it is the number of ways to be wrong.
Covering the whole of what it claims to cover. A comprehensive claim is one that can be disproved by a single gap.
How sure one is, held apart from how right one is. Confidence and accuracy are separate measures and must be reported separately.
Holding the same way across cases and across time. Consistency is not correctness — a thing can be reliably wrong.
A range with no steps in it, where every point shades into the next. Continua resist the categories laid over them.
A number locating a point along an axis. Coordinates only mean something against a stated origin.
To number things one by one. Counting is the difference between believing a set is complete and knowing its size.
That which keeps a running count. Also to oppose — the same word for tallying and for standing against.
How much of a whole has actually been reached. Coverage is the honest answer to how complete a pass really was.
The standard a judgment is made against. Without a stated criterion, a judgment cannot be checked or disputed.
The digits after the point. Decimals state precision and say nothing about accuracy.
How much is packed into a given space. Density decides how much attention a surface asks for.
How far a thing extends inward or downward. Depth is what a surface conceals.
How much effort or capacity a thing demands. Difficulty is relational — it exists between a task and whoever meets it.
One independent direction along which a thing can vary. Add a dimension and you add a whole new way of being different.
Having independent directions along which it can vary. Each dimension adds a whole new way of being different.
How far apart two things are. Also the space kept deliberately between an observer and what they observe.
How much is achieved for what is spent. Efficiency is only meaningful once you say what was being spent.
What is spent to make a thing happen. Effort is real whether or not it produced anything.
The state of being taken up with something. Also the measured attention a thing attracts — and the second sense is where the first gets exploited.
A stated best guess, offered as a guess. An estimate becomes dangerous the moment it is quoted as a measurement.
A judging of worth or performance against a standard. Evaluation must name its standard or it is only an opinion.
Taking little time. Also fixed firmly — the same word for speed and for being held.
The sequence where each number is the sum of the two before it. It appears throughout growing things, which is why it feels like a natural law.
Before all others in an order. Being first is a fact about position, and is constantly read as a claim about worth.
To be the right size or shape for a place. A poor fit is a fact about the pairing, not a fault in either.
The capacity to bend without breaking. Flexibility is not weakness; it is what survives a load rigidity would snap under.
The surface everything stands on, and the lowest permitted value. Both are what you cannot go below.
What changes a thing's motion, and compulsion applied to a being. The physical sense is neutral; the second never is.
A fractional unit of available space in a grid, and the code for French. A named abbreviation rather than a concept.
How often a thing occurs in a given span. Also the rate of a wave — both are counts against time.
A space where something is missing or was never placed. A shape made by absence, and measurable.
The study of shape, size and position. Geometry is what lets space be reasoned about rather than only seen.
Large in scale and in intent. Grandness is a claim about ambition as much as about size.
How far a thing reaches from base to top. Extent measured against the ground.
Running side to side. Level with the ground, which is why it reads as breadth.
The effect a thing has where it lands. Impact is measured on the receiving side, never the sending one.
Without end. Infinity is not a very large number; it is the property of never running out.
How strongly a thing presents, apart from how long it lasts. Amount of force rather than amount of time.
To fill values between known points. Interpolation invents what was not measured and marks it as derived.
The delay between asking and answering. Latency is felt long before it is measured.
A degree on a scale, and the flatness of a plane. Both name a position measured against a fixed reference.
The point past which a thing may not go. A limit can protect or constrain, and the same line does both depending on which side you stand.
Proceeding in a straight line, one step per step. Linearity is an assumption more often than an observation.
Loudness: how loud a recording is as a figure that can be compared, rather than as a peak. K-weighting coefficients at whatever rate the samples carry, four-hundred-millisecond blocks at three-quarters overlap, the absolute gate at minus seventy LUFS and the relative gate at minus ten loudness units, giving the momentary and short-term maxima. True peak is taken apart from loudness, by fourfold polyphase reconstruction. A ceiling in decibels true peak is held by a look-ahead limiter, and both figures stand before and after, so a change is shown and not merely claimed. Channels, a rate, a target in LUFS and a ceiling in dBTP in, a loudness report out, and where a new buffer is asked for, that buffer with its own report.
Least of those present. Lowest is a fact about a set, and changes when the set does.
At the large scale. Also a shorthand that expands into more — both are about one thing standing for much.
Greater in importance or extent. Major is a ranking and always implies a minor.
How much matter a thing holds. Mass is what resists being moved, which is why it reads as weight.
Short form of medium, and of medical. A named abbreviation rather than a concept.
A chosen measure standing in for something harder to measure. A metric is always a proxy, and forgetting that is how it starts to lie.
The part equally far from both ends. A middle is defined entirely by the ends it lies between.
More than one. The word that makes plurality explicit where singular was assumed.
A factor that scales another value. It changes magnitude without changing what is measured.
Holding at several sizes of view at once. Of a structure whose pattern survives zooming.
Of small extent across. Narrowness concentrates and excludes in the same motion.
Covering less than another. Narrowing concentrates and excludes in one motion.
Closest of those available. Nearness is measured on a chosen axis, and naming it is the whole claim.
Less than nothing, or denying rather than affirming. Also the space around a shape, which does as much work as the shape.
A count or a measure, held as a value. A number carries no meaning until someone says what it counted.
Expressed in numbers. Numeric form permits arithmetic and hides what the numbers counted.
A distance from a reference point. An offset is meaningless without saying from what.
A single thing, and the beginning of counting. Also wholeness — the same word for a unit and for being undivided.
Best against a stated measure. Nothing is optimal in general — only for something.
Making a thing better against a chosen measure. Optimisation always sacrifices what was not measured.
Improved against a chosen measure. Optimisation always sacrifices what was not measured.
Taken as a whole rather than in parts. An overall figure hides every distribution inside it.
Where two things occupy the same ground. Overlap is where a boundary was drawn in the wrong place, or in two places.
A part expressed as hundredths of a whole. It states proportion while hiding size.
A part expressed as hundredths of a whole. It states proportion while hiding size.
How well a thing does what it does, and the act of doing it before others. Both senses are measured by a watcher.
A position with no extent. Also the meaning something is driving at — both are exact locations.
Where a thing stands relative to others. Position is always relational; nothing has one alone.
How finely a value is stated. Distinct from accuracy — a precise number can be precisely wrong.
A number divisible only by itself and one. Also first in importance — the same word for indivisible and for foremost.
How likely a thing is, stated as a number. Probability describes a state of knowledge as much as a state of the world.
How well one can do a thing. Proficiency is built by practice and is specific to what was practised.
The casting of a thing onto a surface, and the extending of a trend into the future. Both show something not actually there.
Short form of pixel — the smallest addressable point of a shown image. A named unit rather than a concept.
How well a thing is made, judged against what it is for. Quality is not a property; it is a relation to a purpose.
Distances from a centre to an edge. Plural of radius — each defines a reach and therefore a boundary.
The distance from a centre to an edge. It defines a reach, and by defining it, a boundary.
Short form of random — without predictable pattern. A named abbreviation rather than a concept.
Without pattern that can be predicted. Randomness is a statement about knowledge as much as about the thing.
The span between a least and a greatest. A range states what is possible without saying which is actual.
How seldom a thing occurs. Rarity is a fact about frequency that markets mistake for a fact about worth.
How much of one thing per unit of another. A rate is only meaningful with both terms named.
One quantity stated in terms of another. A ratio survives scaling — it describes relation, not size.
How far a thing extends, and the act of extending toward. Both are about what can be touched from where you stand.
Measured against something else rather than absolutely. A relative claim is meaningless until its reference is named.
How consistently a thing does what it should. Reliability is not correctness — a thing can fail dependably.
Still there after some were taken. What is left is measured against what was.
A part taken to stand for the whole. A sample is only as good as the honesty of how it was chosen.
The size of a thing relative to a reference, and the act of changing it. Also a graded series for measuring.
A number standing for how well a thing did. Also the written form of a piece of music — both are performance set down as marks.
How much harm a thing does or threatens. Severity ranks consequence, not likelihood.
How much a thing matters, and to what. Significance is always relative to a question being asked.
How much two things share. Similarity is always along some axis, and naming the axis is most of the claim.
One, and not more. Singleness is often a constraint rather than a count.
How much of a thing there is, measured against a standard. First a ruling handed down - the amount an authority fixed as right.
The reach from one end to another. Also a marked stretch within a line of text.
How narrowly a thing applies. Greater specificity wins over generality, in style rules and in argument alike.
A continuous range with no steps in it. A spectrum resists the categories laid over it, which is exactly why the word is used of minds.
How much distance is covered in how much time. Speed says nothing about direction.
A sharp brief rise above the usual. Also a small exploratory build made to learn rather than to keep.
How widely something is distributed. Also to distribute — the same word for the state and the act.
A single measured figure held for comparison. A number lifted out of its context, which is both its use and its danger.
What can be said about a group that cannot be said about any member of it. Statistics describe sets, never individuals.
How strongly a thing resists being deformed. Stiffness buys precision and costs give.
The capacity to bear load without failing. Its root runs through valid, value and valour — all of them mean able to hold.
To extend beyond the usual bound. A stretch reaches further and returns changed or not at all.
A looking over the whole in order to measure it. A survey counts and maps; it does not read contents.
How much substance a thing has across its narrowest dimension. What separates a line from a band.
Of small extent across. Thinness lets light and pressure through that thickness would stop.
How much passes through in a given time. Throughput and latency are different questions and are constantly confused.
One level in a stack of levels. A rank that exists only because there are others above or below it.
The highest part, or the beginning of a reading order. Position given weight by direction.
The whole amount when everything is counted. A total is only as honest as the set it counted.
The direction a series is moving over time. A trend describes the past and is constantly mistaken for the future.
A single standard amount, by which other amounts are counted. A unit is an agreement before it is a measure.
How much of the time a thing was actually available. Uptime is measured by those who needed it, not by those who ran it.
How a thing is actually used, as against how it was meant to be. Usage is evidence; intention is only a claim.
Speed together with direction. Velocity says where as well as how fast, which is what separates it from speed.
Running up and down. Aligned with the pull of gravity, which is why it reads as height.
How much space a thing occupies, and how loud it is. Both are amounts of presence.
How heavily a thing bears, and how much it counts. Both the load and the importance.
How far a thing reaches across. The measure of a span at right angles to its length.
The horizontal axis by convention. Also the mark for an unknown. A named placeholder rather than a thing.
The depth axis by convention, and stacking order on a flat surface. A named direction rather than a thing.