The term intangibles is most commonly used to describe things that are recognized but not easily quantified; a common example are economic intangibles which describes something not easily quantified within a given theory of economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

. See capital asset

Capital asset

The term capital asset has three unrelated technical definitions, and is also used in a variety of non-technical ways.*In financial economics, it refers to any asset used to make money, as opposed to assets used for personal enjoyment or consumption...

 for intangibles issues that arise in accounting and micro-economics, including a more detailed example from a particularly complex activity (professional sports). See capital (economics)

Capital (economics)

In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...

 for issues that arise in macro-economics, including a more detailed breakdown of types of asset

Asset

In financial accounting, assets are economic resources. Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset...

s. In general theories of economics seek to reduce or eliminate the number of intangible factors.

Intangibles are difficult-to-measure quantities or factors, generally regarded as pertaining to:

• Customer good will, employee morale, increased bureaucracy, and aesthetic appeal (i.e. negative reaction to a billboard).
• A colloquial expression for qualities in an individual or group of individuals, especially those organized in an official group (e.g. a sports team or office
  Office
  An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
  
  ) which affect performance but are not readily observable. They are often cited as a reason for performance which is surprisingly better or worse than expected.
• An expenditure of time on an activity by a person (such as leveraging know-how, knowledge, collaboration, relationships, systems, and process)
• A defensible legal property right conferred by a Legal Act (copyright, trademarks, patents, designs, customer lists), or financial transactions (R&D, goodwill, intellectual capital)

Intangibles also have different meaning depending on the context:

• In arts, intangibles commonly refer to the artists unique embodiment of substance and form.
• In business, intangibles are commonly referred to as intangible asset
  Intangible asset
  Intangible assets are defined as identifiable non-monetary assets that cannot be seen, touched or physically measured, which are created through time and/or effort and that are identifiable as a separate asset...
  
  s or intellectual capital
  Intellectual capital
  The value of an enterprise is made of physical assets, various financial assets and, finally, intangible assets, i.e., intellectual capital . The term intellectual capital conventionally refers to the difference in value between tangible assets and market value. ....
  
  .
• In financial analysis, intangibles refer to the difference between the book value per share and the share price, or the firm's accounting value and its publicly traded market value (established through the Stock Market, or through mergers, acquisitions, etc).
• In government, intangibles typically refer to social capital
  Social capital
  Social capital is a sociological concept, which refers to connections within and between social networks. The concept of social capital highlights the value of social relations and the role of cooperation and confidence to get collective or economic results. The term social capital is frequently...
  
   and standard of living
  Standard of living
  Standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...
  
  
• In law, legally created intangibles are referred to as intellectual property
  Intellectual property
  Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
  
   and include trademark
  Trademark
  A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
  
  s, patent
  Patent
  A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
  
  s, customer lists, and copyright
  Copyright
  Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
  
  .
• In sports, intangibles typically refer to non-physical abilities of a player or team such as leadership, maturity, team chemistry, and so on.