different between congress vs crowd

English

Etymology

From Latin congressum, the past participle of congredior (“I go, come together”), itself from con- + gradior (“I go, step”). The verb is from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (noun:)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?????s/, /-??s/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??????s/
• (verb:)
  • IPA^(key): /k?n????s/, /k??????s/

Noun

congress (countable and uncountable, plural congresses)

1. (archaic) A coming together of two or more people; a meeting.
   • , New York Review of Books, 2001, p.48:

     After some little repast, he went to see Democritus […]. The multitude stood gazing round about to see the congress.

2. A formal gathering or assembly; a conference held to discuss or decide on a specific question.
3. (often capitalized: Congress) A legislative body of a state, originally the bicameral legislature of the United States of America.
4. An association, especially one consisting of other associations or representatives of interest groups.

   The National Congress of American Indians

5. (dated) Coitus; sexual intercourse.

Synonyms

• (legislative body) assembly, legislature, parliament
• (association) federation

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

congress (third-person singular simple present congresses, present participle congressing, simple past and past participle congressed)

1. (intransitive) To assemble together.
2. To meet in a congress.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?a?d/
• Rhymes: -a?d

Etymology 1

From Middle English crouden, from Old English cr?dan, from Proto-Germanic *kr?dan?, *kreudan?. Cognate with Dutch kruien.

Verb

crowd (third-person singular simple present crowds, present participle crowding, simple past and past participle crowded)

1. (intransitive) To press forward; to advance by pushing.

2. (intransitive) To press together or collect in numbers

   Synonyms: swarm, throng, crowd in

   • Images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words.

3. (transitive) To press or drive together, especially into a small space; to cram.
4. (transitive) To fill by pressing or thronging together
   • 1875, William Hickling Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain

     The balconies and verandas were crowded with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign.

5. (transitive, often used with "out of" or "off") To push, to press, to shove.
6. (nautical) To approach another ship too closely when it has right of way.
7. (nautical, of a square-rigged ship, transitive) To carry excessive sail in the hope of moving faster.
8. (transitive) To press by solicitation; to urge; to dun; hence, to treat discourteously or unreasonably.

Synonyms

• becrowd (dated)

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

crowd (plural crowds)

1. A group of people congregated or collected into a close body without order.
2. Several things collected or closely pressed together; also, some things adjacent to each other.

3. (with definite article) The so-called lower orders of people; the populace, vulgar.
4. A group of people united or at least characterised by a common interest.

Synonyms

• (group of things): aggregation, cluster, group, mass
• (group of people): audience, group, multitude, public, swarm, throng
• (the "lower orders" of people): everyone, general public, masses, rabble, mob, unwashed

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle English crowde, from Welsh crwth or a Celtic cognate.

Noun

crowd (plural crowds)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of crwth
   • 1600, Ben Jonson, Cynthia's Revels

     A lackey that […] can warble upon a crowd a little.

2. (now dialectal) A fiddle.

Derived terms

• crowder

Verb

crowd (third-person singular simple present crowds, present participle crowding, simple past and past participle crowded)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To play on a crowd; to fiddle.
   • 1656, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, and Philip Massinger, The Old Law

     Fiddlers, crowd on, crowd on.

References

crowd in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• c-word