ounce

• IPA^(key): /aʊns/
• Rhymes: -aʊns

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From Middle English ounce, unce, from Middle French once, from Latin uncia (“1/12 part”), from ūnus (“one”). Doublet of inch.

ounce (plural ounces) abbreviation oz. or ℥

1. An avoirdupois ounce, weighing 1/16 of an avoirdupois pound, or 28.3495 grams.
2. A troy ounce, weighing 1/12 of a troy pound, or 480 grains, or 31.1035 grams.
3. A US fluid ounce, with a volume of 1/16 of a US pint, 1.804 687 cubic inches or 29.573 531 milliliters.
4. A British imperial fluid ounce, with a volume of 1/20 of an imperial pint, 1.733871 cubic inches or 28.413063 millilitres.
5. A little bit.

   He didn't feel even an ounce of regret for his actions.

• (avoirdupois ounce): symbol: ℥ (pharmacy)
• (small amount): see also Thesaurus:modicum

• inch

From Middle French once, from Old French lonce (“lynx”), by false division (the l was thought to be the article), from Italian lonza, ultimately from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx, “lynx”).

ounce (plural ounces)

1. (now archaic) A large wild feline, such as a lynx or cougar. [from 14th c.]
   • 1634, William Wood, New Englands Prospect:

     The Ounce or the wilde Cat, is as big as a mungrell dog, this creature is by nature feirce, and more dangerous to bee met withall than any other creature, not fearing eyther dogge or man […].

   • 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:

     Halloa! another prey,
     The nimble Antelope!
     The ounce is freed; one spring,
     And his talons are sheath’d in her shoulders,
     And his teeth are red in her gore.

2. Now specifically, the snow leopard, Uncia uncia. [from 18th c.]

• snow leopard on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Uncia uncia on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Uncia uncia on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• Cuneo, cuneo-, on cue

• unce, ownce, ounse, nounce, nowns

From Middle French once, from Old French once, unce, from Latin uncia. Doublet of ynche.

• IPA^(key): /ˈuːns(ə)/, /ˈuns(ə)/

ounce (plural ounces or ounce)

1. An ounce (unit with much variation, but generally equivalent to 1/12 or 1/16 of a pound)
2. (rare) A shekel (ancient measure of weight)
3. (rare) A minuscule or insignificant amount or quantity.

   • a. 1394, Geoffrey Chaucer, “General Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales‎, lines 677-678:

     By ounces henge his lokkes that he hadde / And therwith he his shuldres overspradde

     By very little hung the locks that he had; / He draped them over his shoulders

4. (rare) A eight-minute unit for measuring time.
5. (rare) A three-inch unit for measuring length.

• English: ounce, unce
• Scots: ounce

• “ǒunce (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-02-25.