volume
    n 1: the amount of 3-dimensional space occupied by an object;
         "the gas expanded to twice its original volume"
    2: the property of something that is great in magnitude; "it is
       cheaper to buy it in bulk"; "he received a mass of
       correspondence"; "the volume of exports" [syn: bulk,
       mass, volume]
    3: physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound
       together; "he used a large book as a doorstop" [syn: book,
       volume]
    4: 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: a relative amount; "mix one volume of the solution with ten
       volumes of water"
    6: the magnitude of sound (usually in a specified direction);
       "the kids played their music at full volume" [syn: volume,
       loudness, intensity] [ant: softness]

Volume \Vol"ume\, n. [F., from L. volumen a roll of writing, a
   book, volume, from volvere, volutum, to roll. See Voluble.]
   1. A roll; a scroll; a written document rolled up for keeping
      or for use, after the manner of the ancients. [Obs.]
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            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.
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   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.
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            An odd volume of a set of books bears not the value
            of its proportion to the set.         --Franklin.
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   4. Anything of a rounded or swelling form resembling a roll;
      a turn; a convolution; a coil.
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            So glides some trodden serpent on the grass,
            And long behind wounded volume trails. --Dryden.
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            Undulating billows rolling their silver volumes.
                                                  --W. Irving.
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   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.
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   5. (Mus.) Amount, fullness, quantity, or caliber of voice or
      tone.
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   Atomic volume, Molecular volume (Chem.), the ratio of the
      atomic and molecular weights divided respectively by the
      specific gravity of the substance in question.

   Specific volume (Physics & Chem.), the quotient obtained by
      dividing unity by the specific gravity; the reciprocal of
      the specific gravity. It is equal (when the specific
      gravity is referred to water at 4[deg] C. as a standard)
      to the number of cubic centimeters occupied by one gram of
      the substance.
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