MULTITUDE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does multitude mean? 

• MULTITUDE (noun)
  The noun MULTITUDE has 3 senses:

1. a large indefinite number

2. a large gathering of people

3. the common people generally

  Familiarity information: MULTITUDE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MULTITUDE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A large indefinite number

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

battalion; large number; multitude; pack; plurality

Context example:

a plurality of religions

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A large gathering of people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

concourse; multitude; throng

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:

The common people generally

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

hoi polloi; mass; masses; multitude; people; the great unwashed

Context example:

power to the people

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)

 Context examples 

Cells undergo natural aging and death, processes that impact a multitude of cellular factors.

(Study reveals how collapse of protein processes is driver of aging and death, National Science Foundation)

Yes, truly, and they press hard upon the castle, for they are an exceeding multitude and full of courage.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I revolved rapidly in my mind a multitude of thoughts and endeavoured to arrive at some conclusion.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A multitude of bacteria populate the human digestive tract, and this gut microbiota plays important roles in maintaining health.

(Bacteriophage therapy may ease severity of alcoholic hepatitis, National Institutes of Health)

Thither we had now to walk, and our way, to my great delight, lay along the quays and beside the great multitude of ships of all sizes and rigs and nations.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Serve her and damn the multitude!

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

OUT of the whole of that vast multitude I was one of the very few who had observed whence it was that this black hat, skimming so opportunely over the ropes, had come.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was a swirl in the packed multitude, and a slow current, bearing the four upon their shoulders, made for the door.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But, dear Mrs. Allen, are you sure there is nobody you know in all this multitude of people?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Love covers a multitude of sins, and of whom could you ask more freely than of him?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)