An act or instance of multiplying.
"The sudden multiplication of weeds in the garden was a result of neglecting to pull them early."
In plain English: A multiply is not actually used as a noun; it is only ever an action verb meaning to make something larger by adding more of it together.
"The number of children at home has multiplied in recent years due to early marriages and larger families."
To increase the amount, degree or number of (something).
"The company's profits multiplied after launching their new product line."
In plain English: To multiply means to make something grow larger by combining equal groups together many times over.
"The bacteria multiplied rapidly in the warm soup."
Usage: Use multiply to describe an action where a quantity grows rapidly through repeated addition rather than simply becoming larger. Avoid confusing it with synonyms like increase when the specific mechanism involves doubling or tripling values over time.
In many or multiple ways.
"The new policy has multiplied the number of complaints we receive in many different ways."
The word multiply comes from the Latin multiplicō, which combines multi meaning "many" and plicō meaning "to fold." It entered English through Old French, originally describing the action of increasing something by folding or doubling it repeatedly.