MULTIPLICITY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does multiplicity mean? 

• MULTIPLICITY (noun)
  The noun MULTIPLICITY has 2 senses:

1. the property of being multiple

2. a large number

  Familiarity information: MULTIPLICITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MULTIPLICITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The property of being multiple

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("multiplicity" is a kind of...):

magnitude (the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small))

Derivation:

multiple (having or involving or consisting of more than one part or entity or individual)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A large number

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

multiplicity; numerosity; numerousness

Hypernyms ("multiplicity" is a kind of...):

figure; number (the property possessed by a sum or total or indefinite quantity of units or individuals)

Attribute:

many (a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by 'as' or 'too' or 'so' or 'that'; amounting to a large but indefinite number)

few (a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by 'a'; a small but indefinite number)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "multiplicity"):

multitudinousness (a very large number (especially of people))

 Context examples 

They took a slight survey of all; and Catherine was impressed, beyond her expectation, by their multiplicity and their convenience.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A test used to measure nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid content (ploidy or multiplicity of the basic number of chromosomes) in a cell.

(DNA Ploidy Analysis, NCI Thesaurus)

But it was the multiplicity of laws that befuddled White Fang and often brought him into disgrace.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I answered it within an hour; but from the confusion of my mind, and the multiplicity of business falling on me at once, my answer, instead of being sent with all the many other letters of that day, was locked up in my writing-desk; and I, trusting that I had written enough, though but a few lines, to satisfy her, remained without any uneasiness.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

As part of the VLA nascent disk and multiplicity survey (VANDAM for short), the researchers mapped the radio waves leaking out of a dense cocoon of dust about 600 light-years away that contained a whole nursery of young stars.

(Our Sun Could Have Been Born With an Evil Twin Called "Nemesis", The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Miss Miller was more ordinary; ruddy in complexion, though of a careworn countenance; hurried in gait and action, like one who had always a multiplicity of tasks on hand: she looked, indeed, what I afterwards found she really was, an under-teacher.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)