• n. 大小；量级；[地震] 震级；重要；光度

magni-,巨大的，-tude,名词后缀。即巨大之物，同时用于地震震级等多种科学术语。

magnitude

magnitude: [14] Magnitude is one of a large family of words for which English is indebted to Latin magnus ‘large’. This goes back to an Indo- European *meg- or *megh-, source also of Greek mégas ‘large’ (from which English gets the prefix mega-) and prehistoric Germanic *mikil-, ancestor of English much. Apart from magnitude, English descendants of magnus include magnanimous [16] (etymologically ‘large-minded’), magnate [15] (a ‘large’ or ‘important’ person), magnificat [12] (from the first words of Luke 1:46, Magnificat anima mea dominum ‘My soul doth magnify the lord’, where magnificat is the 3rd person present singular of Latin magnificāre, a derivative of magnus and source of English magnify [14]), magnificent [16] (etymologically ‘doing great deeds’), and magnum [18] (the application to a double-sized wine bottle is a modern one).

In addition maxim and maximum come from the superlative of magnus and major and mayor from its comparative, and master and the monthname May could also be related.
=> magnum, major, maxim, mayor, much

magnitude (n.)

c. 1400, "greatness of size or character," from Latin magnitudo "greatness, bulk, size," from magnus "great" (see magnate) + -tudo, suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives and participles (see -tude). Meaning "size, extent" is from early 15c. Of stars, "brightness," from 1640s.

1. The time delay would be smaller by eight orders of magnitude.

如果按8个数量级来看，延时量会显得小一些。

来自柯林斯例句

2. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 had a magnitude of 8.3.

1906年旧金山地震的震级为8.3级。

来自柯林斯例句

3. Ministers underestimated the magnitude of the task confronting them.

部长们低估了他们所面临的任务的艰巨性。

来自柯林斯例句

4. These are issues of great magnitude.

这些问题极为重要。

来自柯林斯例句

5. We did not realize the magnitude of the problem.

我们没有意识到这个问题的重要性。

来自《权威词典》