Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large group or crowd; a swarm: synonym: crowd.
  • noun A nomadic Mongol or Turkic tribe.
  • noun A nomadic tribe or group.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A tribe or troop of Asiatic nomads dwelling in tents or wagons, and migrating from place to place to procure pasturage for their cattle, or for war or plunder.
  • noun Hence Any clan or troop; a gang; a migratory crew; a multitude.
  • To live in hordes; huddle together like the members of a migratory tribe: usually followed by together.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A wandering troop or gang; especially, a clan or tribe of a nomadic people migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc.; a predatory multitude.
  • noun Any large group of people or animals, especially one wandering or moving about.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A wandering troop or gang; especially, a clan or tribe of a nomadic people (originally Tatars) migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc.; a predatory multitude.
  • noun A large number of people.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a nomadic community
  • noun a vast multitude
  • noun a moving crowd

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Ultimately (via German Horde, Polish horda, and kindred words in other languages of central Europe, with initial h-, of obscure origin) from Ukrainian orda, tribe or army of Mongols and Turkic peoples (as the Golden Horde) from North-Western Turkic ordï, encampment, residence, court, from Old Turkic ordu.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Recorded in English since 1555. From Middle French horde, from German Horde, from Polish horda, from Russian орда (ordá), which may come directly from Mongol or from West Turkic (compare Tatar urda, 'horde', Turkish ordu, 'camp, army'), from Mongolian orda, ordu, 'court, camp, horde'; akin to Kalmuk orda.

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Examples

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  • How many boards would the Mongols hoard, if the Mongol hordes got bored?

    February 13, 2007