different between congregation vs multitude

English

Etymology

From Old French congregacion, from Latin congreg?ti?, itself from congreg? (“to herd into a flock”). Adopted c. 1340, by the English Bible translator William Tyndale, to render the Ancient Greek ???????? (ekkl?sía, “those called together, (popular) meeting”) (hence Latin eccl?sia) in his New Testament, and preferred by 16th century Reformers instead of church.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k???????e???n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k???????e???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n
• Hyphenation: con?gre?ga?tion

Noun

congregation (countable and uncountable, plural congregations)

1. The act of congregating or collecting together.
2. A gathering of faithful in a temple, church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. It can also refer to the people who are present at a devotional service in the building, particularly in contrast to the pastor, minister, imam, rabbi etc. and/or choir, who may be seated apart from the general congregation or lead the service (notably in responsory form).
3. A Roman Congregation, a main department of the Vatican administration of the Catholic Church.
4. A corporate body whose members gather for worship, or the members of such a body.
5. Any large gathering of people.
6. A group of eagles.
7. (Britain, Oxford University) The main body of university staff, comprising academics, administrative staff, heads of colleges, etc.

Derived terms

• congregational
• congregationalism

Related terms

• congregant
• congregate
• congregator
• gregarious

Translations

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 multit?d? (“great amount or number of people or things”), from multus (“many; much”) + -t?d? (suffix forming abstract nouns indicating a state or condition). The English word is analysable as multi- +? -tude.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?lt?tju?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?lt??t(j)ud/, /?m?l-/
• Hyphenation: mul?ti?tude

Noun

multitude (plural multitudes)

1. A great amount or number, often of people; abundance, myriad, profusion.

   Synonym: (Northern England, Scotland) hantel, hantle
2. The mass of ordinary people; the masses, the populace.

   Synonym: crowd

   Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them.

   • Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil

Derived terms

• multitudinous

Translations

References

Further reading

• multitude on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Old French multitude.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /myl.ti.tyd/

Noun

multitude f (plural multitudes)

1. multitude

Further reading

• “multitude” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Etymology

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

Noun

multitude f (oblique plural multitudes, nominative singular multitude, nominative plural multitudes)

1. crowd of people
2. diversity; wide range

Descendants

• English: multitude
• French: multitude