multitude

From Middle English multitude, multitud, multytude (“(great) amount or number of people or things; multitudinous”),^[1] borrowed from Old French multitude (“crowd of people; diversity, wide range”), or directly from its etymon Latin multitūdō (“great amount or number of people or things”),^[2] from multus (“many; much”) + -tūdō (suffix forming abstract nouns indicating a state or condition). The English word is analysable as multi- +‎ -itude.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌltɪtjuːd/, [-t͡ʃ-]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌltəˌt(j)ud/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mul‧ti‧tude

multitude (plural multitudes)

1. A great amount or number, often of people; abundance, myriad, profusion.

   Synonym: (Northern England, Scotland) hantel, hantle

   • 1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, stanza 51, page 78:

     Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     A torrential rain poured down from the floodgates of the angry heavens upon the bared heads of the assembled multitude which numbered at the lowest computation five hundred thousand persons.

   • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 703:

     On the other hand, to arrive after dusk, when the multitude of garish little public-houses are lit up, giving glimpses of crowded jostling bars and taprooms, is an introduction to a fine city well calculated to affect even the most nonchalant.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     We found Pop Glossop in his pantry polishing silver, and put in our order. He seemed a little surprised at the inrush of such a multitude, but on learning that our tongues were hanging out obliged with a bottle of the best […]

2. The mass of ordinary people; the masses, the populace.

   Synonym: crowd

   • 1599, “Exodus 23:2”, in Geneva Bible‎^[1], Tolle Lege Press, →ISBN, page 83:

     Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil

   • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 117:

     Along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be caſt into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a ſwiniſh multitude.

• contain multitudes
• multitudinous
• noun of multitude

•   multitude on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Inherited from Old French multitude.

• IPA^(key): /myl.ti.tyd/

• Audio:

  (file)

multitude f (plural multitudes)

1. multitude

• “multitude”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from Latin multitūdō (“great amount or number of people or things”), from multus (“many; much”) + -tūdō (suffix forming abstract nouns indicating a state or condition).

multitude oblique singular, f (oblique plural multitudes, nominative singular multitude, nominative plural multitudes)

1. crowd of people
2. diversity; wide range

• English: multitude
• French: multitude