# multitude
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English multitude, multitud, multytude (“(great) amount or number of people or things; multitudinous”), borrowed from Old French multitude (“crowd of people; diversity, wide range”), or directly from its etymon Latin multitūdō (“great amount or number of people or things”), from multus (“many; much”) + -tūdō (suffix forming abstract nouns indicating a state or condition). The English word is analysable as multi- +‎ -itude.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmʌltɪtjuːd/, [-t͡ʃ-]
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (Northern England) IPA: /ˈmʊltɪt͡ʃuːd/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈmʌltəˌt(j)ud/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Hyphenation: mul‧ti‧tude

### Noun

multitude (plural multitudes)
* A great amount or number, often of people; abundance, myriad, profusion.
    Synonym: (Northern England, Scotland) hantel, hantle
** 1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, stanza 51, page 78:Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
** 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:A torrential rain poured down from the floodgates of the angry heavens upon the bared heads of the assembled multitude which numbered at the lowest computation five hundred thousand persons.
** 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 703:On the other hand, to arrive after dusk, when the multitude of garish little public-houses are lit up, giving glimpses of crowded jostling bars and taprooms, is an introduction to a fine city well calculated to affect even the most nonchalant.
** 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:We found Pop Glossop in his pantry polishing silver, and put in our order. He seemed a little surprised at the inrush of such a multitude, but on learning that our tongues were hanging out obliged with a bottle of the best […]
* The mass of ordinary people; the masses, the populace.
    Synonym: crowd
** 1599, “Exodus 23:2”, in Geneva Bible‎, Tolle Lege Press, →ISBN, page 83:Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil
** 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 117:Along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be caſt into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a ſwiniſh multitude.

#### Derived terms

* contain multitudes
* multitudinous
* noun of multitude

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### References

* ↑ “multitūde, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 3 June 2019.
* ↑ “multitude, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2003; “multitude”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* multitude on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Old French multitude.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /myl.ti.tyd/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

multitude f (plural multitudes)
* multitude

### Further reading

* “multitude”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Old French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin multitūdō (“great amount or number of people or things”), from multus (“many; much”) + -tūdō (suffix forming abstract nouns indicating a state or condition).

### Noun

multitude oblique singular, f (oblique plural multitudes, nominative singular multitude, nominative plural multitudes)
* crowd of people
* diversity; wide range

#### Descendants

* English: multitude
* French: multitude