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MULTITUDE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The common people generally
Example:
power to the people
Synonyms:
hoi polloi; mass; masses; multitude; people; the great unwashed
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("multitude" is a kind of...):
group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "multitude"):
laity; temporalty (in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy)
audience (the part of the general public interested in a source of information or entertainment)
followers; following (a group of followers or enthusiasts)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A large gathering of people
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("multitude" is a kind of...):
assemblage; gathering (a group of persons together in one place)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "multitude"):
hive (a teeming multitude)
horde; host; legion (a vast multitude)
herd; ruck (a crowd especially of ordinary or undistinguished persons or things)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A large indefinite number
Example:
a plurality of religions
Synonyms:
battalion; large number; multitude; pack; plurality
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Hypernyms ("multitude" is a kind of...):
large indefinite amount; large indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude)
Derivation:
multitudinous (too numerous to be counted)
Context examples:
Every blow was shrewd to hurt; and he delivered a multitude of blows.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Thus, B-Cell Linker represents a central linker protein that bridges the B-cell receptor-associated kinases with a multitude of signaling pathways and may regulate biologic outcomes of B-cell function and development.
(B-Cell Linker, NCI Thesaurus)
But no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really was.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
But still, there certainly were a dreadful multitude of ugly women in Bath; and as for the men! they were infinitely worse.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
He grinned when I handed it over, yet it was a grin that contained more sincere thanks than a multitude of the verbosities of speech common to the members of my own class.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The researchers are inventing new materials that are small, fast, and can perform in a multitude of ways, such as mimicking neurons in the brain, computing with magnets, and calculating with quantum mechanics.
(Picoscience and a plethora of new materials, National Science Foundation)
I had reached my own gate, and was standing listening for the deep bell of St. Paul's, the sound of which I thought had been borne towards me among the multitude of striking clocks, when I was rather surprised to see that the door of my aunt's cottage was open, and that a faint light in the entry was shining out across the road.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I used to fancy that life was a positive and perpetual entity, and that by consuming a multitude of live things, no matter how low in the scale of creation, one might indefinitely prolong life.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
They found that if phosphine were produced at relatively small amounts equivalent to the amount of methane produced on Earth today, it would produce a signal in the atmosphere that would be clear enough to be detected by an advanced observatory such as the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, if that planet were within 5 parsecs, or about 16 light years from Earth—a sphere of space that covers a multitude of stars, likely hosting rocky planets.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Microwaves, the very same radiation that can heat up your dinner, are produced by a multitude of astrophysical sources, including strong emitters known as masers (microwave lasers), even stronger emitters with the somewhat villainous name of megamasers and the centers of some galaxies.
(Hubble's Megamaser Galaxy, ESA/NASA)
