# plurality

Pronunciation: US say "pluu-RAL-uh-tee" /plʊˈɹæləti/; UK

## Noun

1. The largest number of votes won by any one candidate or option, when that number is still less than a majority of the valid votes cast.
   - Simple: More votes than anyone else got, but less than half of all the votes.
   - _With three strong candidates in the race, the mayor won with only a plurality of the vote._
   - _In some states a plurality is enough to win, while others hold a runoff when no one passes 50 percent._
2. The largest of several numbers or parts of a whole, which need not be more than half of it.
   - Simple: The biggest part of a whole, even when it is not more than half.
   - _A plurality of respondents named cost as their main reason for not owning a car._
   - _Catholics form a plurality of the town's churchgoers, though not a majority._
3. The state of being plural, that is, of being more than one or, in grammar, of having a form that shows more than one.
   - Simple: Being more than one, or, in grammar, being in the plural form.
   - _In Turkish, plurality is marked with a suffix added to the noun._
   - _Philosophers once argued over the plurality of worlds, the idea that Earth is not the only inhabited planet._
4. A group made up of many things or people; a large number.
   - Simple: A large number of things or people.
   - _The festival brings together a plurality of musical traditions from across the region._
   - _Her research drew on a plurality of sources, from court records to private diaries._
5. A group made up of two or more things, as in the technical phrase a plurality of.
   - Simple: A group of two or more things.
   - _The device comprises a housing and a plurality of sensors mounted on its inner wall._
   - _Each module contains a plurality of memory cells arranged in rows._
6. The quality or state of being many in number.
   - Simple: The fact of there being many of something.
   - _What struck visitors most was the plurality of churches in such a small town._
   - _The sheer plurality of competing standards made early home computers hard to connect._
7. The amount by which one number is larger than another, especially the lead in votes a winner has over the runner-up.
   - Simple: How much bigger one number is than another, most often how many more votes the winner got.
   - _The governor carried the state by a plurality of about 80,000 votes._
   - _Her plurality over the second-place finisher shrank as the late ballots were counted._
8. The condition in which one person experiences or shows several distinct personalities or selves in one body.
   - Simple: Having more than one self or personality living in one body.
   - _Online communities have given people who experience plurality a place to compare notes._
   - _The therapist asked how plurality affected their daily life at work._
9. The state or practice of having more than one husband or wife at the same time.
   - Simple: Having more than one husband or wife at the same time.
   - _The novel follows a household in which plurality of wives was taken for granted._
   - _The anthropologist recorded how plurality of husbands worked in a few mountain villages._
10. The practice of one member of the clergy holding more than one benefice, or paid church post, at the same time.
   - Simple: When one priest holds more than one paid job in the church at the same time.
   - _Reformers attacked plurality, complaining that the bishop drew income from four parishes he never visited._
   - _The new rules banned pluralities, so each vicar had to give up all but one living._

## Origin

From plural + -ity; from Middle English pluralite, from Old French pluralité (“multitude, state of being plural”), from Latin plūrālitās.

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