1 Mathematics A result obtained by dividing one quantity by another.
- By examining the limits of sums, products and quotients of variable quantities, Mengoli was setting up the basic rules if the calculus thirty years before Newton and Leibniz.
- His favourite topics in number theory included binary quadratic forms, quadratic residues, Gauss sums and Fermat quotients.
- Why is the quotient of a number divided by zero infinity?
2A degree or amount of a specified quality or characteristic: the increase in Washington’s cynicism quotient
More example sentences
- These seem, if anything, to have reinforced a sense of distance from it - an antipathy without his usual quotient of curiosity.
- In minutes, his sick printer was back on its feet, gobbling up its usual quotient of ink cartridges.
- But this year the copycat quotient is off the scale.
Late Middle English: from Latin quotiens 'how many times' (from quot 'how many'), by confusion with participial forms ending in -ens, -ent-.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: quo|tient
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