PLURALITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Plurality

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/plərˈælɪti/ Listen

noun

Plurality n. (pl. pluralities)

The state of being plural, or consisting of more than one; a number consisting of two or more of the same kind; as, a plurality of worlds; the plurality of a verb.

The greater number; a majority; also, the greatest of several numbers; in elections, the excess of the votes given for one candidate over those given for another, or for any other, candidate. When there are more than two candidates, the one who receives the plurality of votes may have less than a majority. See Majority. "Take the plurality of the world, and they are neither wise nor good."

(Eccl.) See Plurality of benefices, below.

Plurality of benefices (Eccl.), the possession by one clergyman of more than one benefice or living. Each benefice thus held is called a plurality. (Eng.)

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Etymology of 'Plurality'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Plurality" Quotes from Famous Books

... suspicion, there is a degree of jealousy which is absolutely necessary in this degenerate state of mankind, and is indeed at all times to be considered as a political virtue. It is in your power also to prevent a plurality of places incompatible with each other being vested in the same persons. This our patriots have loudly and very justly complained of in time past, and it will be an everlasting disgrace to them if they suffer the practice to continue. Care I am informed is taking to prevent the evil with as little ...

— The Writings of Samuel Adams, vol. III. • Samuel Adams

... fact that, because of the operation of the standard as a result of growing experience in art, what once seemed beautiful often ceases to seem so. And we must also insist that among the things surviving as beautiful we inevitably set up a hierarchy, a scale. A plurality of values, each unique and in its own way indispensable to a complete world of values, is not inconsistent with relations of higher and lower among them. The impressionist has taught us to love variety and to renounce the bigotry of the old refusal to accept anything short of the ...

— The Principles Of Aesthetics • Dewitt H. Parker

... the Constituent Assembly in Petrograd (See App. XI, Sect. 15) gave an enormous plurality to the Bolsheviki; so that even the Mensheviki Internationalists pointed out that the Duma ought to be re-elected, as it no longer represented the political composition of the Petrograd population.... At the same time floods ...

— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed

... indulging in a plurality of wives, as adopted by many of the mountaineers, never received the sanction, in thought, word or action, of Kit Carson. His moral character may well be held up as an example to men whose pretensions to virtuous life are greater. Although he was continually surrounded by licentiousness ...

— The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself • De Witt C. Peters

... smiles ought the same person to have?" cried Florence, impatiently. But that which instantly answered her said forcibly, that a plurality of them was possible. ...

— Queechy, Volume II • Elizabeth Wetherell

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