Is there a single word for the number of people currently in a room? For example, the room has a capacity of 50, but the current ? is only 3.
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1There are currently three people in the room? – WS2 Jan 7 '15 at 11:53
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If you want a word that matches up with capacity, you can use occupancy for this. Per the OED:
- a. The condition of being an occupant; the fact of occupying; the act of taking, or fact of holding, actual possession, esp. of land (spec. in Law, the taking possession of something not belonging to any one, as constituting a title to it); actual holding of or residence in a place; = OCCUPATION1, 2.
[...]
a. The state of being occupied or busy; = OCCUPATION 4.
b. Teleph. The proportion of the time during which a circuit or device is handling calls.
c. The proportion of accommodation occupied or used.
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The closest word to what you want is probably occupancy. See the Merriam-Webster definition of it here: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/occupancy
One of the definitions they give is this:
the number of people who are in a particular building or room at one time
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1I am pondering the comment by @tchrist. There were only three minutes between the first answer and the second, so most probably tchrist posted his answer whilst William Bloom was writing his. At least one person prefers William Bloom's answer, probably as it only provides information directly related to the question and so is more succinct. Is there forum etiquette that says you can't supply the same word even if you posted before realising the other answer existed and you think you answer is better? – JoAnne Jan 7 '15 at 12:53
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Thank you, JoAnne. :) You are exactly correct. When I started writing my answer, no one had yet responded to this question. – William Bloom Jan 7 '15 at 14:40
