multiple
Noun pluralmultiples
Pluralmultiples
- 1More than one, used before a plural noun.
Multiple sources confirmed the same story.
The company ships to multiple countries every week.
Similarseveral, many, various, numerous
Note
The everyday quantity word, standing where several or many might: multiple blades, multiple podcast episodes. It came into English through French multiple from Late Latin multiplus, and surgeons wrote of multiple wounds by the 1870s.
- 2Having more than one part, component, or function, or occurring more than once.
She is a multiple Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles.
A multiple pregnancy needs closer care from doctors than a single one.
UsageOften goes before a singular noun: a multiple pregnancy, a multiple winner.
Oppositesingle
Note
The word often flags something that happens more than once when once was expected, such as multiple registrations on a site that allows one per person.
- 3A whole number produced by multiplying a given whole number by another whole number.
Every multiple of ten ends in a zero.
She listed the first ten multiples of seven.
UsageUsually followed by of: a multiple of 7. Its partner is factor: 7 is a factor of 21, and 21 is a multiple of 7.
Note
The mathematician's word looks at division from the other side. 14, 21 and 70 are multiples of 7 precisely because 7 divides each of them with nothing left over.
Less common meanings
- 4One of a group of siblings produced by a single multiple birth, such as a twin or triplet.
Because twins and triplets are often born early, doctors watch each multiple closely after delivery.
Parents of multiples often buy two of everything at once.
UsageMost often plural, for the babies as a group: parents of multiples, expecting multiples.
- 5One of several identical copies of the same item; a duplicate.
The museum bought one multiple from an edition of twenty identical bronze casts.
Some artists make multiples so that people on modest budgets can own an identical copy of their work.
UsageMostly used in art, for a work made in copies; for ordinary things, copy or duplicate is the usual word.
Oppositeoriginal
Note
The art world gives this sense its sharpest edge: there a multiple is a work deliberately made in copies. That raises the paradox the Southeastern College Art Conference Review points to in 1996. Making such copies scarce can look like a marketing ploy or a form of elitism.
- 6The price-earnings ratio of a company; its share price divided by earnings per share.
Tech firms often command a higher multiple than utility companies.
Analysts compared the multiples of several competing retailers.
UsageUsually with an adjective or a figure: a high multiple, trading at a multiple of fifteen.
Note
Investors use this as shorthand for how many times its earnings a share is priced at. A higher multiple means buyers are paying more for each unit of earnings. Here too, a multiple expresses one quantity as a number of times another.
- 7A retail chain with many branches under common ownership, or one of its stores.
The grocery multiple announced plans for fifty new branches.
Independent bookshops often struggle once a large multiple opens a branch in the same town.
UsageOften plural, the multiples, for the big chains as a group set against independent shops.
Similarchain
Oppositeindependent
Note
A retail-trade word, most often met in the plural as the multiples, meaning the chains as a group set against independents. Management Today in 1979 counts Woolworths among them, with its thousand outlets. The word names the company or the chain as a whole just as readily as a single branch, so the multiples' many outlets is a natural phrase.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A 1979 passage in Management Today describes Woolworths as a multiple and gives its outlet count as 1,000. en.wiktionary.org
- 8Showing more than one distinct personality or self within one body, or experiencing oneself in this way.
- 9A single person who displays or experiences several distinct personalities or selves.
- 10An arrangement of two or more piercings in a single ear.
First of all, the 'greenhorn' stigma of piercing has worn off. The older woman sees her daughter wearing multiples. So she's confident enough to have her ears pierced at least once.
1976, Jewelers' Circular/Keystone, numbers 1-6 - 11A discovery or invention made independently by two or more people or groups, often at about the same time.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From French multiple, which comes from Late Latin multiplus.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- English multiple comes from French multiple. en.wiktionary.org
- French multiple comes from Late Latin multiplus. en.wiktionary.org