Origin: Latin suffix -ude
Multitude has 4 different meanings across 1 category:
a large indefinite number
"a battalion of ants"
"a multitude of TV antennas"
"a plurality of religions"
the common people generally
"separate the warriors from the mass"
"power to the people"
A great amount or number, often of people; abundance, myriad, profusion.
"The multitude of stars in the night sky left everyone speechless."
"A multitude of people gathered in the square to watch the parade."
Usage: Use "multitude" to emphasize the sheer scale of a crowd rather than simply counting individuals. It carries a slightly more formal tone than synonyms like "lot" or "bunch."
The word "multitude" entered Middle English via Old French, where it originally described a crowd of people or a wide range of diversity. It ultimately derives from the Latin multitūdō, which combined the root for "many" with a suffix indicating abundance to mean a great number of things.