different between multitude vs proportion

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English proporcion, from Old French proportion, from Latin pr?porti? (“comparative relation, proportion, symmetry, analogy”), from pro (“for, before”) + portio (“share, part”); see portion.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /p???p????n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p???p????n/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /p???po(?)???n/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /p???po???n/
• Rhymes: -??(?)??n
• Hyphenation: pro?por?tion

Noun

proportion (countable and uncountable, plural proportions)

1. (countable) A quantity of something that is part of the whole amount or number.

   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital, […]!”

2. (uncountable) Harmonious relation of parts to each other or to the whole.
3. (countable) Proper or equal share.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     Let the women […] do the same things in their proportions and capacities.

4. The relation of one part to another or to the whole with respect to magnitude, quantity, or degree.
   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     The image of Christ made in Pilate's time after his own proportion.
5. (mathematics, countable) A statement of equality between two ratios.
6. (mathematics, archaic) The "rule of three", in which three terms are given to find a fourth.
7. (countable, chiefly in the plural) Size.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

proportion (third-person singular simple present proportions, present participle proportioning, simple past and past participle proportioned)

1. (transitive) To divide into proper shares; to apportion.
2. (transitive) To form symmetrically.
3. (transitive, art) To set or render in proportion.
4. (transitive, archaic) To correspond to.

Translations

Further reading

• proportion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• proportion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Latin pr?porti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??.p??.sj??/

Noun

proportion f (plural proportions)

1. proportion

Derived terms