Meaning & use
volume
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Meanings
noununcountable
How loud a sound is, or the control on a device that makes it louder or quieter.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: turn up the volume, at full volume.
Patterns
- turn the volume up
- at full volume
Please turn down the volume, because the baby is asleep.
The speakers were set at full volume.
She pressed the button to raise the volume on the remote.
nouncountable or uncountabletechnicalmathematics
The amount of space that something takes up or contains, measured in units such as liters or cubic meters.
Grammar: Often followed by of: the volume of a box.
Patterns
- the volume of something
The teacher showed us how to calculate the volume of a cylinder.
The volume of water in the tank dropped overnight.
A gas expands to fill the volume of its container.
nounsingularbusiness
A large amount or quantity of something, such as work, traffic or sales.
Grammar: Usually followed by of or used with a noun: a high volume of calls.
Patterns
- a high volume of something
- the volume of something
The shop copes with a high volume of orders at Christmas.
The volume of traffic doubled after the new mall opened.
We cannot keep up with the volume of emails.
nouncountable
One book that is part of a set or series, or a single bound book.
Grammar: Countable: volume one, a three-volume set.
Patterns
- volume of something
- volume two
The encyclopedia has twenty volumes.
She borrowed the second volume of his memoirs.
An old leather-bound volume sat on the top shelf.
Word forms
| plural | volumes |
|---|
Common combinations
- turn up the volume
- Can you turn up the volume? I cannot hear the news.
- volume control
- The volume control on this radio is broken.
- high volume
- The restaurant handles a high volume of customers on weekends.
- speak volumes
- Her silence spoke volumes about how she felt.
- volume of sales
- The volume of sales rose by ten percent.
- calculate the volume
- Students must calculate the volume of the cube.
Synonyms and how they differ
- loudness
- Loudness describes how strong a sound is, but volume is also the name of the control that changes it.
- capacity
- Capacity is how much a container can hold, whereas volume is the space something actually takes up.
- quantity
- Quantity is a general word for amount, while volume suggests a large amount that can be measured or counted over time.
- tome
- Tome is a humorous or literary word for a large heavy book, where volume is a neutral word for any book.
Opposites
Word family
- voluminous adjective
- very large or full, often about clothes or writing
- volumetric adjective
- relating to measurement of volume
- multivolume adjective
- made up of several books
Commonly confused: volume or capacity?
volume vs capacity
Capacity is the most a container can hold, while volume is how much space an object occupies at any time.
Practice
The teacher asked us to find the ___ of the box by multiplying length, width and height.
Choose one answer.
Multiplying length, width and height gives the space inside, which is volume. Weight and pressure are not found that way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “volume”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.