volume Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the amount of 3-dimensional space occupied by an object
    • the gas expanded to twice its original volume
  2. noun the property of something that is great in magnitude
    bulk; mass.
    • it is cheaper to buy it in bulk
    • he received a mass of correspondence
    • the volume of exports
  3. noun physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound together
    book.
    • he used a large book as a doorstop
  4. noun a publication that is one of a set of several similar publications
    • the third volume was missing
    • he asked for the 1989 volume of the Annual Review
  5. noun a relative amount
    • mix one volume of the solution with ten volumes of water
  6. noun the magnitude of sound (usually in a specified direction)
    loudness; intensity.
    • the kids played their music at full volume

WordNet

Vol"ume noun
Etymology
F., from L. volumen a roll of writing, a book, volume, from volvere, volutum, to roll. See Voluble.
Definitions
  1. A roll; a scroll; a written document rolled up for keeping or for use, after the manner of the ancients. Obs.
    The papyrus, and afterward the parchment, was joined together [by the ancients] to form one sheet, and then rolled upon a staff into a volume (volumen). Encyc. Brit.
  2. Hence, a collection of printed sheets bound together, whether containing a single work, or a part of a work, or more than one work; a book; a tome; especially, that part of an extended work which is bound up together in one cover; as, a work in four volumes.
    An odd volume of a set of books bears not the value of its proportion to the set. Franklin.
  3. Anything of a rounded or swelling form resembling a roll; a turn; a convolution; a coil.
    So glides some trodden serpent on the grass, And long behind wounded volume trails. Dryden.
    Undulating billows rolling their silver volumes. W. Irving.
  4. Dimensions; compass; space occupied, as measured by cubic units, that is, cubic inches, feet, yards, etc.; mass; bulk; as, the volume of an elephant's body; a volume of gas.
  5. (Mus.) Amount, fullness, quantity, or caliber of voice or tone.

Webster 1913