ounce
n. countablen. a small unit for measuring weight. It is also used to describe a very tiny amount of a quality, like luck or truth.
n. a unit of weight equal to one-sixteenth of a pound (approximately 28.35 grams). Figuratively used to denote a minimal quantity of an abstract quality.
The recipe calls for one ounce of butter.
The suspect didn't show even an ounce of regret when the judge read the final verdict.
In a profession where every ounce of precision counts, the master watchmaker spent hours calibrating the tiny gears to ensure the mechanism remained perfectly accurate.
From Middle English ounce, unce, from Middle French once, from Latin uncia (“Roman ounce, various similar units”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”). Doublet of a, one, inch, uncia, onça, onza, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah.
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”). Doublet of onza and lynx.
Commonly used in the fixed phrase 'an ounce of' followed by an uncountable abstract noun.