plural
English
Alternative forms
- (abbreviation, grammar): pl.
Etymology
From Middle English plurelle, from Old French plurel (“plural”), borrowed from Latin pluralis (“of or belonging to more than one, belonging to many”, adjective), from plus, pluris (“more”) + -alis.
Pronunciation
Adjective
plural (comparative more plural, superlative most plural)
- Consisting of or containing more than one of something. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- 1594, William Shakespeare, Two Gentlmen of Verona:
- Than plural faith which is too much by one: Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!
- (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 with 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
Antonyms
Translations
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Noun
plural (plural plurals)
- (grammar, uncountable) The plural number.
- 1895, William W. Goodwin, A Greek Grammar. Revised and enlarged., page 34:
- "There are three numbers; the singular, the dual, and the plural. [...] The dual is sometimes used to denote two objects, but even here the plural is more common."
- (grammar, countable) 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 for one item and plural for more than one item. Some languages also have a dual form for two, a trial form for three, or a paucal form for several (e.g. Fijian). Other languages do not distinguish any of these categories.
- 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
Translations
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See also
- (grammatical numbers) grammatical number; singular, dual, trial, quadral, quintal, paucal, plural (Category: en:Grammar)
Catalan
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
plural m or f (masculine and feminine plural plurals)
Noun
plural m (plural plurals)
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “plural” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “plural”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
- “plural” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “plural” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
French
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
plural (feminine plurale, masculine plural pluraux, feminine plural plurales)
Related terms
Further reading
- “plural”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Galician
Etymology
Noun
plural m or f (plural plurais)
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “plural”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, since 2012
German
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
plural (not comparable)
Declension
Synonyms
- (pluralistic): pluralistisch
References
- “plural” in Duden online
Maltese
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
Noun
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Middle English
Adjective
plural
- Alternative form of plurelle
Occitan
Etymology
Noun
plural m (plural plurals)
Portuguese
Etymology
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "BR" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /pluˈɾaw/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "PT" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /pluˈɾal/
Adjective
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Noun
plural m (plural plurais)
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
plùrāl m (Cyrillic spelling плу̀ра̄л)
Declension
Synonyms
Spanish
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
plural m or f (masculine and feminine plural plurales)
Noun
plural m (plural plurales)
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “plural”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Grammar
- English uncountable nouns
- Catalan terms borrowed from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Latin
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan adjectives
- Catalan epicene adjectives
- Catalan nouns
- Catalan countable nouns
- Catalan masculine nouns
- ca:Grammar
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- Galician terms borrowed from Latin
- Galician terms derived from Latin
- Galician lemmas
- Galician adjectives
- gl:Grammar
- German terms borrowed from Latin
- German terms derived from Latin
- German 2-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German lemmas
- German adjectives
- German uncomparable adjectives
- Maltese 2-syllable words
- Maltese terms with IPA pronunciation
- mt:Grammar
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives
- Occitan terms borrowed from Latin
- Occitan terms derived from Latin
- Occitan lemmas
- Occitan nouns
- Occitan masculine nouns
- Occitan countable nouns
- Portuguese terms borrowed from Latin
- Portuguese terms derived from Latin
- Portuguese 2-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- pt:Grammar
- Serbo-Croatian terms borrowed from Latin
- Serbo-Croatian terms derived from Latin
- Serbo-Croatian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Serbo-Croatian lemmas
- Serbo-Croatian nouns
- Serbo-Croatian masculine nouns
- Serbo-Croatian uncountable nouns
- Spanish terms borrowed from Latin
- Spanish terms derived from Latin
- Spanish 2-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish adjectives
- Spanish epicene adjectives
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
- es:Grammar