Are there accepted legal definitions for words which describe ranges
of numbers and do those definitions vary with context? I think I am
pretty confident about "Single" "Couple" and "All" but when does a
"few" become "several" or "several" become "many"?

I want to describe events or circumstances which occur more than once
but not necessarily in exactly the same way and where writing a
precise table or a list might not be practical or possible.

For example:
Each time I have visited A&E I have had to wait a few/several/many
hours to be seen.
There were a few/several/many weeks last year when I did no shopping
at all.
About two hundred people attended each meeting but a few/several/many
became bored and left before the main speaker took the stage.

And should "some" be in that list of numerical descriptors or is it
just too vague?

Thanks,

Nick

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In message <[email protected]>, at 08:57:34 on
Wed, 8 Jan 2025, Nick Odell <[email protected]> remarked:

Are there accepted legal definitions for words which describe ranges
of numbers and do those definitions vary with context? I think I am
pretty confident about "Single" "Couple" and "All" but when does a
"few" become "several" or "several" become "many"?

I want to describe events or circumstances which occur more than once
but not necessarily in exactly the same way and where writing a
precise table or a list might not be practical or possible.

For example:
Each time I have visited A&E I have had to wait a few/several/many
hours to be seen.

It's reported in the news today that some(sic) are now waiting 50hrs.

There were a few/several/many weeks last year when I did no shopping
at all.

About two hundred people attended each meeting but a few/several/many
became bored and left before the main speaker took the stage.

And should "some" be in that list of numerical descriptors or is it
just too vague?

It may depend whether you are trying to play-up, or play-down the
outliers. And the context is everything.
--
Roland Perry

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On Wed, 8 Jan 2025 10:32:13 +0000, Roland Perry <[email protected]>
wrote:

In message <[email protected]>, at 08:57:34 on
Wed, 8 Jan 2025, Nick Odell <[email protected]> remarked:

Are there accepted legal definitions for words which describe ranges
of numbers and do those definitions vary with context? I think I am
pretty confident about "Single" "Couple" and "All" but when does a
"few" become "several" or "several" become "many"?

I want to describe events or circumstances which occur more than once
but not necessarily in exactly the same way and where writing a
precise table or a list might not be practical or possible.

For example:
Each time I have visited A&E I have had to wait a few/several/many
hours to be seen.

It's reported in the news today that some(sic) are now waiting 50hrs.

There were a few/several/many weeks last year when I did no shopping
at all.

About two hundred people attended each meeting but a few/several/many >>became bored and left before the main speaker took the stage.

And should "some" be in that list of numerical descriptors or is it
just too vague?

It may depend whether you are trying to play-up, or play-down the
outliers.

Ah, but unlike the hypothetical accountant who asks their client,
"what would you like it to add up to?" I was wondering if there is any recognised precision in general groupings of numbers such that if I
were to use a term about a series of events the description of an
individual event could not be pulled out and challenged as misleading.

And the context is everything.

Really? Single is uncontroversial and precise. Couple and All are too.
Is the precision completely lost in the middle part of the sequence or
are there ranges of numbers which are recognised as accurately
described by one but not another of those terms?

Nick

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In message <[email protected]>, at 20:32:18 on
Wed, 8 Jan 2025, Nick Odell <[email protected]> remarked:

About two hundred people attended each meeting but a few/several/many >>>became bored and left before the main speaker took the stage.

And should "some" be in that list of numerical descriptors or is it
just too vague?

It may depend whether you are trying to play-up, or play-down the
outliers.

Ah, but unlike the hypothetical accountant who asks their client,
"what would you like it to add up to?" I was wondering if there is any >recognised precision in general groupings of numbers such that if I
were to use a term about a series of events the description of an
individual event could not be pulled out and challenged as misleading.

And what would the adverse consequences of such a challenge be?

And the context is everything.

Really? Single is uncontroversial and precise. Couple and All are too.

I disagree. In many contexts "a couple of" can mean anything from 2-5.
In other words, more than one, but not many(sic). I use it that way
often when I describe something has happening "a couple of weeks ago". I
don't usually mean precisely two, rather it was more than one, but could
have been three or four.

Is the precision completely lost in the middle part of the sequence or
are there ranges of numbers which are recognised as accurately
described by one but not another of those terms?

I'm not sure I've ever seen a definitive vocabulary, and of course
there's other words like "half" which depending on context could also be "roughly 40-60%"
--
Roland Perry

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