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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Multitude \Mul"ti*tude\, noun [F. multitude, L. multitudo, multitudinis, fr. multus much, many; of unknown origin.]
1. A great number of persons collected together; a numerous collection of persons; a crowd; an assembly.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them. --Matt. ix. 36.
2. A great number of persons or things, regarded collectively; as, the book will be read by a multitude of people; the multitude of stars; a multitude of cares.
It is a fault in a multitude of preachers, that they utterly neglect method in their harangues. --I. Watts.
A multitude of flowers As countless as the stars on high. --Longfellow.
3. The state of being many; numerousness.
They came as grasshoppers for multitude. --Judg. vi. 5.
{The multitude}, the populace; the mass of men.
Syn: Throng; crowd; assembly; assemblage; commonalty; swarm; populace; vulgar. See {Throng}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
multitude
noun
1: a large indefinite number; "a battalion of ants"; "a multitude of TV antennas"; "a plurality of religions" [syn: {battalion}, {large number}, {plurality}, {pack}]
2: a large gathering of people [syn: {throng}, {concourse}]
3: the common people generally; "separate the warriors from the mass"; "power to the people" [syn: {masses}, {mass}, {hoi polloi}, {people}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
90 Moby Thesaurus words for "multitude": a mass of, a world of, abundance, acres, army, bags, barrels, bevy, bunch, bushel, cloud, cluster, clutter, cohue, copiousness, countlessness, covey, crowd, crush, deluge, flight, flock, flocks, flood, galaxy, hail, heap, hive, horde, host, ignobile vulgus, jam, large amount, legion, load, lots, many, many-headed multitude, mass, masses of, mob, mobile vulgus, mountain, much, muchness, nest, numbers, numerousness, ocean, oceans, pack, panoply, peck, plenitude, plenty, plurality, press, profusion, quantities, quantity, quite a few, rabble, rout, ruck, scores, sea, shoal, spate, superabundance, superfluity, swarm, the common herd, the crowd, the great unnumbered, the great unwashed, the herd, the hoi polloi, the horde, the majority, the many, the masses, the mob, the multitude, throng, tidy sum, tons, volume, world, worlds, worlds of
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
MULTITUDE, noun A crowd; the source of political wisdom and virtue. In a republic, the object of the statesman's adoration. "In a multitude of consellors there is wisdom," saith the proverb. If many men of equal individual wisdom are wiser than any one of them, it must be that they acquire the excess of wisdom by the mere act of getting together. Whence comes it? Obviously from nowhere -- as well say that a range of mountains is higher than the single mountains composing it. A multitude is as wise as its wisest member if it obey him; if not, it is no wiser than its most foolish.
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