Is there a word which describes the strength of an adjective within an ordered set?
For example, these words describe “quality” in ascending order of their “power”:
- good
- great
- fantastic
Is there a name for a set like this or a tool, similar to a thesaurus, that could be used to identify such a set?
Background information: I asked a question on UX StackExchange regarding naming different levels of system stability. I was looking for confirmation that the ordering of Operational, Temperamental, Unstable, Critical, Dire was appropriate when it struck me that there must be a name to describe the relationship between these words.
Best Answer
The technical word for this is "Word Spectrum." As seen in the Dictionary App on OSX (more specifically only shown in the Oxford's American Writer Thesaurus). Another thing you may want to check out is "Aristotle's Golden Mean." Not the same, but in the spectrum category.