Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The greater number or part; a number more than half of the total.
- noun The amount by which the greater number of votes cast, as in an election, exceeds the total number of remaining votes.
- noun The political party, group, or faction having the most power by virtue of its larger representation or electoral strength.
- noun Law The age at which a person is recognized as an adult by the law.
- noun The military rank, commission, or office of a major.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being major or greater; superiority; preponderance.
- noun The greater number; more than half the whole number: as, a majority of mankind; a majority of votes. See
plurality . - noun The excess of one of two groups of things which have been enumerated over the other: as, the measure was carried by a majority of twenty votes; his majority was two to one.
- noun Full age; the age at which the laws of a country permit a young person to manage his own affairs and to exercise the rights of citizenship—in most countries twenty-one years.
- noun The office, rank, or commission of a major.
- noun [L. majores.] Ancestors; ancestry.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality or condition of being major or greater; superiority.
- noun The military rank of a major.
- noun The condition of being of full age, or authorized by law to manage one's own affairs.
- noun The greater number; more than half
- noun obsolete Ancestors; ancestry.
- noun The amount or number by which one aggregate exceeds all other aggregates with which it is contrasted; especially, the number by which the votes for a successful candidate exceed those for all other candidates. See
Plurality . - noun to die.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun More than
half (50%) of some group - noun The difference between the winning vote and the rest of the votes
- noun dated Legal adulthood
- noun UK The office held by a member of the armed forces in the rank of major
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the property resulting from being or relating to the greater in number of two parts; the main part
- noun the age at which persons are considered competent to manage their own affairs
- noun (elections) more than half of the votes
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"The proletarian movement is the _self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority in the interests of the immense majority_."
Bolshevism The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy John Spargo 1921
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The term majority of our cash, we probably should have said almost all of our cash.
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Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. has returned to the fold, giving the Democrats a 32-30 majority in the state Sen.te-again-and taking the title majority leader.
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Thus, a majority is all the Constitution requires to make rules, to set precedents, and to operate no a day-to-day basis.
Durbin (D, D Majority) vs. Durbin (D, R Majority) on filibusters. | RedState 2010
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To imply the majority is against health care reform generally is a PR tactic and disingenious.
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Obama the majority is against you gay rights movement, QUIT trying to change the world.
Obama holds gay pride reception, vows to overturn 'unjust laws' 2009
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The control by the majority is the principle on which our government should rest, but upon which it does not, at present.
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If he feels the majority is agsainst this and it may cost him his job, then the reason he will loose his job is because he didn't do his job!
Freshman Dem: Passing health care reform worth losing my seat 2009
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Umm, just make that every country in human history other than the U.S., the land where the majority is always right.
Hanson: What's Worth Celebrating, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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The current system stinks and the voice of the majority is again ignored.
malagrowther commented on the word majority
I'd like to hear the community views. What do you think about "the majority of his career"? I think career is integrated and does not include the idea of numbers, not quite in the way of cheese and snow, more like a motor car engine. I feel funny to hear the tweet currently on the right of me now, too, the majority of my cold. I thought it was clearly wrong, but find over ten million hits on G. In most of them (the majority) the his refers to a baseball or football player or a wrestler.
February 9, 2012