multitude

multitude, army, host, legion mean, both in the singular and plural, a very large number of persons or things. They do not (as do the words compared at CROWD) necessarily imply assemblage, but all of them can be used with that implication.

Multitude stresses numerousness with respect to what is the standard for or the test of numerousness in the thing referred to; thus, in "that child always asks a multitude of questions" and "I never saw such a multitude of books before in one house" multitude obviously refers to a much smaller number in the first than in the second illustration

{

we must not . . . expect systematic education to produce multitudes of highly cultivated and symmetrically developed persons— Eliot

}

When applied to a group of persons taken as a whole, multitude suggests an assemblage of a large number of persons

{

moved his arms with large pawing gestures, as though he were distributing lay blessings to a kneeling multitude— Wharton

}

but multitude with a definite article suggests the masses of ordinary people or the populace

{

speeches that sway the multitude

}

{

a book that appeals to the multitude

}

{

both scorns and seeks the understanding and approbation of the multitude— Knight

}

Army usually adds to multitude the implications of orderly arrangement without a suggestion of crowding and often, especially in clearly figurative use, a progressive advance without any suggestion of halting or gathering

{

they were served by a vast army of waiters

}

{

an army of locusts

}

{

we have considered science as a steadily advancing army of ascertained facts— Inge

}

{

he discovered around him ... a world whose existence he had neither known nor suspected, the army of persons who know no routine labor— Purdy

}

Host has for its primary implication numerousness. It may mean nothing more

{

she has a host of admirers

}

{

he knows hosts of people

}

{

the burning of hosts of unfortunate old women—and sometimes young ones—as witches— Cobban

}

but it may suggest more strongly than any of the other words a concentration in great numbers of the thing referred to; in such cases it often connotes an impressive or striking array

{

a clear,, cold night and a host of stars in the sky

}

{

I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils— Wordsworth

}

{

a host of exquisite creations, the expression of a great artist's subtle vision and faultless technique— Read

}

{

a very uneasy division, giving rise to a host of perplexities whose consideration has occupied the intervening centuries— Whitehead

}

Legion in general use retains little suggestion of its basic application to the chief unit of the Roman army and but little more of its scriptural uses; typically it applies to an indefinitely or incalculably large number

{

the windy arguments of this legion of aberrants— McComas

}

{

the legion of animal owners is also rising fast— Investor's Reader

}

{

a legion of friends hastened to his support— W. B. Parker

}

{

armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk— Browning

}

Analogous words: horde, throng, press, mob, crush, *crowd