# horde

Pronunciation: US say "HORD" /hɔɹd/; say "HAWD" UK /hɔːd/, AUS /hoːd/

## Noun

1. A very large crowd of people, or a great number of animals or things.
   - Simple: A very big group of people or things.
   - _Hordes of tourists descend on the village every August._
   - _By midsummer a horde of mosquitoes rose from the marsh every evening._
2. A wandering band or gang, especially a tribe of nomads (originally the Tatars) moving from place to place in search of pasture or plunder; any predatory multitude.
   - Simple: A group of people who travel from place to place, often to find grass for their animals or to rob others.
   - _The horde moved west each spring, driving its herds toward fresh grazing land._
   - _Villages along the river were burned as the horde swept through in search of plunder._

## Other meanings

- (verb) to travel en masse, to flock

## Origin

Recorded in English since 1555, from Middle French horde, from German Horde, from Polish horda, from Russian орда́ (ordá, "horde, clan, troop"). This probably comes from Kipchak Turkic and ultimately from Proto-Turkic *ordu ("place where an army or ruler stays"), related to Turkish ordu ("camp, army") and Mongolian орд (ord, "court, camp, horde").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/horde (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).