volume definition

1. A roll; a scroll; a written document rolled up for keeping or for use, after the manner of the ancients. "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)

4. 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. Amount, fullness, quantity, or calibre of voice or tone.

<chemistry> Atomic volume, Molecular volume, the ratio of the atomic and molecular weights divided respectively by the specific gravity of the substance in question.

<physics> Specific volume, 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 centimetres occupied by one gram of the substance.

Origin: F, from L. Volumen a roll of writing, a book, volume, from volvere, volutum, to roll. See Voluble.