multiply
English
Etymology 1
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French multiplier, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin multiplicō, from multi (“many”) + plicō (“I fold”).
The noun presumably derives from the verb.
Pronunciation
Verb
multiply (third-person singular simple present multiplies, present participle multiplying, simple past and past participle multiplied)
- (transitive) To increase the amount, degree or number of (something).
- (Can we date this quote by Ames and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Impunity will multiply motives to disobedience.
- 1843, Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London
- It would indeed be easy to multiply modern authorities respecting locustal food; one more authority shall suffice, from which it will appear that the Arabs make a sort of locust bread.
- (Can we date this quote by Ames and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (transitive, arithmetic, with by) To perform multiplication on (a number).
- when you multiply 3 by 7, you get 21; he multiplied several numbers
- (intransitive) To grow in number.
- (intransitive) To breed or propagate.
- 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. […] Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.
- (intransitive, arithmetic) To perform multiplication.
- He had been multiplying, but it occurred to him he needed to resolve the exponents, first.
- (transitive, rare) To be a factor in a multiplication with (another factor).
- 1983, Graham Flegg, Numbers, 2002 Dover edition, →ISBN, page 154 [1]:
- This follows a similar process, counters having to be removed and replaced at each stage of the remaining part of the calculation except the final one, where 2 multiplies 3 to give 6.
- 1993, Edward T. Dowling, Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Mathematical Methods for Business and Economics, →ISBN, page 14 [2]:
- Of all the possible combinations of factors above, only . Carefully arranging the factors, therefore, to ensure that 2 multiplies 4 and 3 multiplies 5, we have
- Of all the possible combinations of factors above, only . Carefully arranging the factors, therefore, to ensure that 2 multiplies 4 and 3 multiplies 5, we have
- 1983, Graham Flegg, Numbers, 2002 Dover edition, →ISBN, page 154 [1]:
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
increase the amount, degree or number of
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transitive: perform multiplication on (a number)
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intransitive: grow in number
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intransitive: breed or propagate
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intransitive: perform multiplication
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- Esperanto: (please verify) obligi
- (deprecated template usage)
{{trans-mid}}
Noun
multiply (plural multiplies)
- (computer science) An act or instance of multiplying.
- 1975, Byte (issues 1-8, page 14)
- The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done.
- 1975, Byte (issues 1-8, page 14)
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
Adverb
multiply (comparative more multiply, superlative most multiply)
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