different between multitudinous vs multitude

English

Etymology

From (the stem of) Latin multit?d? +? -ous.

Adjective

multitudinous (comparative more multitudinous, superlative most multitudinous)

1. Existing in great numbers; innumerable. [from 17th c.]
   • 1876, John Quincy Adams, Diary entry dated 9 September, 1833 in Charles Francis Adams (editor), Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, Volume 9, p. 14,^[1]

     In the multitudinous whimseys of a disabled mind and body, the thick-coming fancies often occur to me that the events which affect my life and adventures are specially shaped to disappoint my purposes.

   • 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 14,^[2]

     Whichever way one looked one’s view was shut in by the multitudinous ranks of trees, and the tangled bushes and creepers that struggled round their bases like the sea round the piles of a pier.

2. Comprising a large number of parts.
   • 1625, Peter Heylin, Mikrokosmos: A Little Description of the Great World, Augmented and revised, Oxford, “The Grecian Iles,” p. 424,^[3]

     […] he feared no enemies but the Sea and the Earth; the one yeelding no safe harbour for such a Navie; the other not yeelding sufficient sustenance for so multitudinous an Armie.

   • 1882, Walt Whitman, Specimen Days & Collect, Philadelphia: Rees Welsh & Co., entry dated 26 August, 1879, p. 138,^[]

     […] looking up a long while at the grand high roof with its graceful and multitudinous work of iron rods, angles, gray colors, plays of light and shade, receding into dim outlines […]

   • 1916, Carl Sandburg, “Monotone” in Chicago Poems, New York: Henry Holt & Co., p. 118,^[4]

     The monotone of the rain is beautiful,

     And the sudden rise and slow relapse

     Of the long multitudinous rain.

3. Crowded with many people.
   • 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, London: C. & J. Ollier, Canto 12, Stanza I, p. 250,^[5]

     The transport of a fierce and monstrous gladness

     Spread thro’ the multitudinous streets, fast flying

     Upon the winds of fear […]

   • 1919, Max Beerbohm, “A. V. Laider” in Seven Men, London: William Heinemann, p. 142,^[6]

     In multitudinous London the memory of A. V. Laider and his trouble had soon passed from my mind.

4. Coming from or produced by a large number of beings or objects.
   • 1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book One, Chapter 16,^[7]

     The multitudinous shouting confused his ears.

   • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, New York: Ballantine, 1968, Chapter 36, p. 261,^[8]

     […] she paused before she opened the doors of the salon, for a loud and confused noise came from within. It was of a kind that she had never heard before, so happy it was, so multitudinous, so abandoned—the sound of voices at play.

5. (obsolete) Of or relating to the multitude, of the common people.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 1,^[9]

     [you] that prefer

     A noble life before a long, and wish

     To jump a body with a dangerous physic

     That’s sure of death without it, at once pluck out

     The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick

     The sweet which is their poison […]

Synonyms

• myriad
• See also Thesaurus:manifold, Thesaurus:innumerable

Derived terms

• multitudinously

Related terms

• multitude

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