plural

• (abbreviation, grammar): pl.

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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈplʊə.ɹəl/, /ˈplɔː.ɹəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: pleural

plural (comparative more plural, superlative most plural)

1. Consisting of or containing more than one of something.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Two Gentlmen of Verona:

     Than ’’’plural’’’ faith which is too much by one: Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

2. (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; 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

• manifold
• multiple
• morefold
• several

• singular

plural (plural plurals)

1. (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."

2. (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.

• 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.

• singular

• (grammatical numbers) grammatical number; singular, dual, trial, quadral, paucal, plural ^{(Category: en:Grammar)}

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /pluˈɾal/

plural (masculine and feminine plural plurals)

1. plural

plural m (plural plurals)

1. plural

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

• IPA^(key): /ply.ʁal/

plural (feminine singular plurale, masculine plural pluraux, feminine plural plurales)

1. plural, large

• pluralisme
• pluraliste
• pluralité
• pluri-
• pluriel

• “plural” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

plural m or f (plural plurais)

1. plural

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

• IPA^(key): /pluˈʁaːl/

plural (not comparable)

1. pluralistic

• (pluralistic): pluralistisch

• plural in Duden online

• IPA^(key): /plʊˈrɐːl/

plural m

1. (grammar) plural

plural

1. Alternative form of plurelle

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

plural m (plural plurals)

1. plural

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pluˈɾaw/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pluˈɾal/

plural m or f (plural plurais, comparable)

1. plural (consisting of more than one things)

plural m (plural plurais)

1. (grammar) plural (word referring to multiple things)

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

• IPA^(key): /plǔraːl/
• Hyphenation: plu‧ral

plùrāl m (Cyrillic spelling плу̀ра̄л)

1. (uncountable) plural

• množìna

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

• IPA^(key): /pluˈɾal/

plural (plural plurales)

1. plural, multiple

plural m (plural plurales)

1. (grammar) plural