macroscopicity

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noun

The quality or state of being macroscopic.

Scrabble 27

Meanings

nounmacroscopicity (countable and uncountable, plural macroscopicities)

plural macroscopicities

  1. uncountableThe quality or state of being macroscopic.

    In contrast, permutation-symmetric pure states feature rather low geometric entanglement and strong and robust macroscopicity

    2015, Malte C. Tichy, Chae-Yeun Park, Minsu Kang, Hyunseok Jeong, Klaus Mølmer, “Is macroscopic entanglement a typical trait of many-particle quantum states?”, in arXiv
    1 more example

    ...it appears to be a small step from (1) and (2) to the identification of a sufficiently large mass with a macroscopic mass and, by analogy, to the consideration as macroscopic any system having sufficiently large quantum numbers associated with it, as well as to accept such macroscopicity as sufficient for classicality.

    2014 September 28, Gregg Jaeger, “What in the (quantum) world is macroscopic?”, in American Journal of Physics, volume 82, number 9, pages 896–905
  2. countablequantum mechanicsA formal measure of the size of a quantum mechanical system or experiment which, while typically larger than the atomic scale, has not undergone decoherence.

    Macroscopicities of a representative selection of quantum superposition experiments with mechanical systems plotted against their publication date (adapted from [17] with additional data).

    2014, Stefan Nimmrichter, Macroscopic Matter-Wave Interferometry, Springer, page 230
    1 more example

    2014, M. Arndt, et al., Matter wave interferometry with composite quantum objects, G. M. Tino, M. A. Kasevich (editors), Interferometria atomica, Società Italiana di Fisica, [jointly published as Atom Interferometry, IOS Press], page 136, Macroscopicities for a selection of neutron, atom, molecule and SQUID superposition experiments ordered according to their publication date.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*meh₂ḱ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*mh₂ḱrós
  3. Proto-Hellenic*makrós
  4. Ancient Greekμᾰκρός (măkrós)
  5. Frenchmacro-
  6. Englishmacro-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*speḱ-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*spéḱyeti
  9. Proto-Hellenic*sképt͏̌omai
  10. Ancient Greekσκέπτομαι (sképtomai)
  11. Ancient Greekσκοπός (skopós)
  12. Ancient Greekσκοπέω (skopéō)
  13. Englishmacroscopic
  14. Englishmacroscopicity

From macroscopic + -ity.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

macroscopicity. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/macroscopicity

MLA

“macroscopicity.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/macroscopicity. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “macroscopicity,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/macroscopicity.

Source: macroscopicity on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.