ENGLISH
REFERENCE

vols

n. countable
B2 Upper Intermediate vols

n. a short way of writing 'volumes'. You see this in libraries or lists of books to show how many books are in a set.

n. the standard abbreviation for the plural form of 'volume'. Typically used in bibliographic citations or library catalogues to indicate a multi-part work.


SIMPLE

The encyclopedia set has 20 vols.

CONTEXTUAL

The bibliography lists the complete works of the author as a collection spanning twelve vols.

COMPLEX

In the rare books section, the archivist noted that several vols were missing from the original eighteenth-century set, likely due to a fire in the previous century.

Usage

Always plural in this form; the singular abbreviation is 'vol.' with a period.

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