plural

See also Plural, and plurál

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English plurelle, from Old French plurel (“plural”), from Latin pluralis (“of or belonging to more than one, belonging to many”, adjective), from plus, pluris (“more”) + -alis.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: pleural

Adjective

plural (comparative more plural, superlative most plural)

1. Consisting of or containing more than one of something.
2. (comparable) Pluralistic.
   • 1987, Mircea Eliade, Charles J. Adams editor, The Encyclopedia of religion, volume 3:

     Although the nation was far more plural than Canada in the number of its Christian groups

   • 2006, Suisheng Zhao, Debating political reform in China: rule of law vs. democratization, page 29:

     The Hong Kong and Singapore markets are way more "plural" than most Western economies, but they have not led to pluralistic politics.

   • 2007, Lachelle Renee Hannickel, From cultural transgressions to literary transformations: ..., page 195:

     History is perhaps more plural than traditionally imagined, leaving room for more groups to express their story.

   • 2009, Pille Valk, Teenagers' perspectives on the role of religion in their lives, ..., page 281:

     Generally the girls tend to perceive their social world as somewhat more plural than boys do. Several of these questions reveal that there are more boys (61%) than girls (39%) who 'do not know' about the religion of others

   • 2011, Harald E. Braun; Edward Vallance, The Renaissance Conscience, page 50:

     Yet More's conscience was responding to a world just a little more plural than the world he was born in

Synonyms

• morefold

Antonyms

• singular

Translations

more than one

• Albanian: shumës (sq)
• Armenian: հոգնակի (hy) (hognaki) 
• Catalan: plural (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 複數 (cmn), 复数 (cmn) (fùshù), 眾數 (cmn), 众数 (cmn) (zhòngshù)

• Dutch: meervoudig, meervoudige
• Esperanto: plurnombra (eo)
• Finnish: monikollinen, monikko-
• French: pluriel (fr)
• German: Plural-, pluralisch, plural (de), mehrfach (de), Mehrzahl- (de)
• Greek: πληθυντικός (el) (plithindikós) 
• Hebrew: לשון רבים (he) (lišon rabim)
• Icelandic: fleir- (is), marg- (is), fleirtölu- (is), í fleirtölu (is)
• Indonesian: jamak
• Italian: plurale (it)

• Japanese: 複数 (ja) (ふくすう, fukusū)
• Korean: 복수 (ko) (boksu)
• Lojban: su'oremei (jbo)
• Occitan: plural (oc)
• Portuguese: plural (pt)
• Russian: множественный (ru) (mnóžestvennyj) 
• Scottish Gaelic: iolra (gd)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: множински (sh) m, плурални (sh) m

  Roman: množinski (sh) m, pluralni (sh) m

• Spanish: plural (es)
• Swahili: wingi (sw), akthari (sw)
• Swedish: plural (sv), flertal (sv)
• Ukrainian: чисельний (uk) (chyselny) 
• Volapük: plunumik (vo)

Noun

plural (plural plurals)

1. (grammar): a word in the form in which it potentially refers to something other than one person or thing; and other than two things if the language has a dual form.

Usage notes

• Many languages have singular and plural forms for one item or more than one item. Some have a singular form for one, dual form for two, trial form for three, paucal form for several, and plural for more than two (e.g., Arabic, Fijian).
• While the plural form generally refers to two or more persons or things, that is not always the case. The plural form is often used for zero persons or things, for fractional things in a quantity greater than one, and for people or things when the quantity is unknown.
• In English, the plural is most often formed simply by adding the letter "s" to the end of a noun, e.g. apple/apples. There are many exceptions, however, such as echo/echoes, mouse/mice, child/children, deer/deer (same word), etc.

Antonyms

• singular

Translations

word in plural form

• Albanian: shumës (sq)
• Arabic: جمع (ar) (jamʻ), صيغة الجمع (ar) (ṣīġatu 'l-jamʻ)
• Armenian: հոգնակի թիվ (hy) (hognaki t’iv) , հոգնակի (hy) (hognaki) 
• Catalan: plural (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 複數 (cmn), 复数 (cmn) (fùshù), 眾數 (cmn), 众数 (cmn) (zhòngshù)

• Czech: množné číslo (cs) n
• Dutch: meervoud (nl) n
• Estonian: mitmus (et)
• Finnish: monikko (fi)
• French: pluriel (fr) m
• German: Plural (de) m, Mehrzahl (de) f
• Greek: πληθυντικός (el) (plithindikós) m 
• Icelandic: fleirtala (is) f
• Indonesian: bentuk jamak
• Italian: plurale (it) m
• Japanese: 複数形 (ja) (ふくすうけい, fukusū-kei)
• Jèrriais: pluriel m
• Korean: 복수형 (ko) (boksuhyeong)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: پڕژمار (ku) (pirrjimar)

• Latin: pluralis (la)
• Latvian: daudzskaitlis (lv) m
• Norwegian: flertall (no) n
• Occitan: plural (oc) m
• Persian: جمع (fa) (jam')
• Polish: liczba mnoga (pl) f
• Portuguese: plural (pt) m
• Russian: множественное число (ru) (mnóžestvennoje čisló) n 
• Scottish Gaelic: iolra (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: множина f, плурал m

  Roman: množina f, plural m

• Slovak: množné číslo (sk) n, plurál (sk) m
• Spanish: plural (es) m
• Swahili: wingi (sw)
• Swedish: plural (sv) n, pluralis (sv) n
• Telugu: బహువచనము (te) (bahuvacanamu)
• Ukrainian: множина (uk) (množyná) f 
• Volapük: plunum (vo)
• West Frisian: meartal (fy) n

See also

• (grammatical numbers) grammatical number; singular, dual, trial, quadral, paucal, plural ^{(Category: en:Grammar)}

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Catalan

Etymology

Latin plurale

Adjective

plural m, f (masculine and feminine plural plurals)

1. plural

Noun

plural m (plural plurals)

1. plural

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French

Adjective

plural m (feminine plurale, masculine plural pluraux, feminine plural plurales)

1. plural, large

Related terms

• pluralisme
• pluraliste
• pluralité
• pluri-
• pluriel

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Galician

Noun

plural m and f (plural plurais)

1. plural

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Maltese

Pronunciation

• IPA: /plʊˈrɐːl/

Noun

plural m

1. (grammar) plural

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Occitan

Noun

plural m (plural plurals)

1. plural

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Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA: /plǔraːl/
• Hyphenation: plu‧ral

Noun

plùrāl m (Cyrillic spelling плу̀ра̄л)

1. (uncountable) plural

Declension

    declension of plural

	singular	plural
nominative	plùrāl	plurali
genitive	plurála	plurala
dative	pluralu	pluralima
accusative	plural	plurale
vocative	plurale	plurali
locative	pluralu	pluralima
instrumental	pluralom	pluralima

Synonyms

• množìna

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Spanish

Adjective

plural m and f (plural plurales)

1. plural, multiple

Noun

plural m (plural plurales)

1. (grammar) plural