Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AM'PLI-TUDE, n. [L. amplitudo, from amplus, large.]

1. Largeness; extent, applied to bodies; as, the amplitude of the earth.
2. Largeness; extent of capacity or intellectual powers; as, amplitude of mind.
3. Extent of means or power; abundance; sufficiency. – Watts. Amplitude, in astronomy, is an arch of the horizon intercepted between the east and west point, and the center of the sun or star at its rising or setting. At the rising of a star, the amplitude is eastern or ortive; at the setting it is western, occiduous, or occasive. It is also northern or southern, when north or south of the equator. – Johnson. Encyc. Amplitude of the range, in projectiles, is the horizontal line subtending the path of a body thrown, or the line which measures the distance it has moved. – Johnson. Chambers. Magnetical amplitude, is the arch of the horizon between the sun or a star, at rising or setting, and the east or west point of the horizon, by the compass. The difference between this and the true amplitude is the variation of the compass. – Encyc.