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horde

[hawrd, hohrd]
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noun
  1. a large group, multitude, number, etc.; a mass or crowd: a horde of tourists.
  2. a tribe or troop of Asian nomads.
  3. any nomadic group.
  4. a moving pack or swarm of animals: A horde of mosquitoes invaded the camp.
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verb (used without object), hord·ed, hord·ing.
  1. to gather in a horde: The prisoners horded together in the compound.
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Origin of horde

1545–55; earlier also hord, horda ≪ Czech, Polish horda < Ukrainian dialect gordá, Ukrainian ordá, Old Russian (orig. in Zolotaya orda the Golden Horde), via Mongolian or directly < Turkic ordu, orda royal residence or camp (later, any military encampment, army); cf. Urdu
Can be confusedhoard horde

Synonyms

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1. mob, herd, throng.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for horde

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Of course there's a horde of applicants, but you're exceptional; you know that.

  • If there are houses there, and stores for the sun-time, who will shut them to this horde of desperadoes?

    The House Under the Sea

    Sir Max Pemberton

  • Smothered and lost were the warriors in the horde that poured increasingly on.

  • The horde of Saxons took flight into the hall, and there they stood and got breath.

  • Wasn't it from the Szekler Stone that our fathers repulsed the whole Mongolian horde?

    Manasseh

    Maurus Jokai

British Dictionary definitions for horde

horde

noun
  1. a vast crowd; throng; mob
  2. a local group of people in a nomadic society
  3. a nomadic group of people, esp an Asiatic group
  4. a large moving mass of animals, esp insects
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verb
  1. (intr) to form, move in, or live in a horde
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Word Origin

C16: from Polish horda, from Turkish ordū camp; compare Urdu

usage

Horde is sometimes wrongly written where hoard is meant: a hoard (not horde) of gold coins
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for horde

n.

1550s, from W. Turkic (cf. Tatar urda "horde," Turkish ordu "camp, army"), to English via Polish, French, or Spanish. The initial -h- seems to have been acquired in Polish. Transferred sense of "uncivilized gang" is from 1610s. Related: Hordes.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper