multitude

noun

Etymology: From Middle English multitude, multitud, multytude (“(great) amount or number of people or things; multitudinous”), borrowed from Old French multitude (“crowd of people; diversity, wide range”), or directly from its etymon Latin multitūdō (“great amount or number of people or things”), from multus (“many; much”) + -tūdō (suffix forming abstract nouns indicating a state or condition). The English word is analysable as multi- + -itude.

1. A great amount or number, often of people; abundance, myriad, profusion.

   “Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

   “A torrential rain poured down from the floodgates of the angry heavens upon the bared heads of the assembled multitude which numbered at the lowest computation five hundred thousand persons.”

2. The mass of ordinary people; the masses, the populace.

   “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil”

   “Along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be caſt into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a ſwiniſh multitude.”