majority
Pluralmajorities
- 1More than half of the people or things that make up a group.
A clear majority of the residents supported the new park.
Across all the surveys, large majorities favored the change.
UsageThe majority of + plural noun usually takes a plural verb: the majority of people agree. Also a clear majority, in the majority.
Similarbulk, preponderance
Oppositeminority
Note
Latin maior, "greater", sits behind the word, and here greater means outnumbering everything else put together. The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution shows its exacting side: a majority of the whole number of Electors, not merely the largest share.
- 2In a legislature, the number of seats by which the ruling party leads the opposition; in a UK election, the margin of votes between the winner and the next candidate.
The government clung to a slim majority of just two seats.
The sitting member held her seat with a majority of over ten thousand votes.
UsageUsually a majority of + a number: won with a majority of 200 votes; a slim or narrow majority.
Note
Here the word measures a gap rather than a share. In a legislature it counts seats, as in a narrow three-seat majority. In British election talk it counts votes, by one of two reckonings: the winner's lead over the runner-up, or the lead over all other candidates combined. A winner with 53 percent against 47 has a six-point majority, not a 53-percent one. That is where it parts company with the more-than-half meaning.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A result of 53 percent against 47 percent gives a margin of six percentage points. en.wiktionary.org
- 3The legal status of full adulthood, reached at a set age, after which a person may act without a guardian.
Upon attaining her majority, she took full control of the family trust.
He waited until his majority to claim the inheritance left by his grandfather.
UsageUsually reach or attain your majority, or the age of majority; in everyday talk this can sound formal.
Oppositeminority
Note
The legal word for full adulthood is majority, the counterpart of minority, the state of being a minor. A person reaches or attains it at a set age, and a guardian's control ends there.
Less common meanings
- 4The office or position held by a member of the armed forces who has the rank of major.
He earned his majority after distinguished service in the field.
The officer held his majority for three years before rising to colonel.
UsageOfficers get, earn or gain their majority. Here it means promotion, not coming of age.
Note
Military usage puts the -ity suffix onto the rank of major itself, so the majority is the post, much as a captaincy is a captain's. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925), Gatsby got his after the Argonne battles.
- 5One's ancestors collectively; the people who came before in a family line.
Of evil parents an evil generation, a posterity not unlike their majority; of mischievous progenitors, a venomous and destructive progeny.
1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica
Practice
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Origin
From Middle French maiorité, from Medieval Latin maiōritātem, ultimately from Latin maior meaning "greater": essentially major plus the suffix -ity.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Majority derives from Middle French maiorité, from Medieval Latin maiōritātem. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate Latin source is maior, meaning greater. en.wiktionary.org
- The word can be analysed morphologically as major plus -ity. en.wiktionary.org