multitude
Americannoun
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a great number; host.
a multitude of friends.
-
a great number of people gathered together; crowd; throng.
- Synonyms:
- mass
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the state or character of being many; numerousness.
-
the multitude, the common people; the masses.
noun
-
a large gathering of people
-
the common people
-
a large number
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the state or quality of being numerous
Synonym Usage
See crowd 1.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of multitude
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English word from Latin word multitūdō. See multi-, -tude
Explanation
A multitude is a very large number or a huge crowd. If you see a multitude of zombies approaching, you're in trouble. Sometimes the word multitude refers to the common people, or the masses — that is, everyone in a society apart from the political elite. There are a lot of words and phrases for this, like hoi polloi, which is Greek for "the many," and "the great unwashed." Those last two terms are usually used in a disapproving way, but multitudes is generally a positive term. If you were to say that a leader inspired the multitudes to rise up against their oppressor, we'd assume that you sympathized with the multitudes.
Vocabulary lists containing multitude
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mining the multitude of horror movie references that the show ingenuously employs?
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 7, 2026
He believes that successful software companies will need to create a “combined data universe from all the multitude of enterprise apps on the client side.”
From MarketWatch • Jun. 22, 2026
AI’s advances have paved the way for “a multitude of golden ages” happening simultaneously, Bezos said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026
The average teenager has never left the country or experienced heartbreak any more acute than the burn of their first breakup, soon to be forgotten by a multitude of other casual flings and serious partners.
From Salon • May 30, 2026
Mind you, a standing meerkat reaches up eighteen inches at most, so it was not the height of these creatures that was so breathtaking as their unlimited multitude.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
