Home UK English plural

Meaning of plural in English:

plural

Pronunciation /?pl??r(?)l/

Translate plural into Spanish

adjective

  • 1Grammar
    (of a word or form) denoting more than one, or (in languages with dual number) more than two.

    postpositive ‘the first person plural’
    • ‘The first and second words could be either plural nouns or singular-inflected verbs.’
    • ‘The first person plural possessive pronoun ‘our’ is occasionally used in lieu of an article in order to denote a certain universality.’
    • ‘I've corrected this post to reflect that ‘Sims’ is plural.’
    • ‘Conversely, Russian has a complex plural system in which the morphological markers for sets of two, three, and four differ from those for five through ten.’
    • ‘Lice is the plural form of louse.’
    • ‘Kant's use of the first person plural is a device of a very special character.’
    1. 1.1More than one in number.
      ‘the meanings of the text are plural’
      • ‘Maybe some form of plural executive is needed, such as they have in Switzerland.’
      • ‘But given that the section was in practice likely to be focused on people who are indeed purporting to be living in plural marriages, it seems that the report was indeed suggesting that the ban on polygamy was illegal.’
      • ‘Here he stressed Nehru's commitment to the emancipation of women and untouchables, to communal harmony and the maintenance of a united and plural India, and to the fostering of a socialist economics.’
      • ‘More than a decade of plural politics, we should surely have something to be proud of, and the work that has so far gone in ensuring democratic elections on September 28, is such an achievement.’
      • ‘Their memories of the past will necessarily be plural as well as conflicting, bringing with them both joy and sorrow, both rejoicing and mourning, both happiness as well as despondency.’
      • ‘Prosecutors have said that they investigated Green's marriages only after seeing him on several national television programmes talking about plural marriages.’
      • ‘The Utah-based Church in the late 19th century banned the practice of taking plural wives and ex-communicates members who practice polygamy.’
      • ‘Australia is demonstrably a religiously plural state.’
      • ‘Hence, Lebanon is still in need of history and religion curricula capable of addressing Lebanon's plural needs.’
      • ‘We will fight to the end to protect our multicultural, plural space.’
      • ‘This harmony of cultures was vital for the society's plural character.’
      • ‘A religiously plural country like India throws up complex problems in a democratic set up.’
      • ‘The evolution of our society to one that is genuinely plural is moving at a snail's pace.’
      • ‘It is always difficult for passionate moral minorities to operate in plural cultures because they have to learn to live alongside practices which they abominate.’

  • 2Containing several diverse elements.

    ‘a plural society’
    • ‘The countrymen prefer a diverse and plural India.’
    • ‘The many migrations since the war have set Britain on the path to becoming a plural and diverse society.’
    • ‘In a country as diverse and plural as India, a wide range of demands are always going to arise that will have to be recognised, accommodated, and to some extent satisfied, if the polity is to survive.’
    • ‘But the concept that there is a person around whom we could all unite, who could articulate a vision to which we would all be willing to sign up flies in the face of any understanding of Australia as a plural, diverse democracy.’
    • ‘Human diversities are widely plural and their histories complex.’
    • ‘The pressing need of our age is to found a public sphere that would cherish subjectivity, where plural experiences of cultures would correspond to diverse inner lives.’

noun

  • 1Grammar
    A plural word or form.

    ‘nouns with irregular plurals’
    • ‘Dwarf should definitely go in the category of final-f words with variable plurals.’
    • ‘Participants were told that the solution words did not include foreign words, plurals, or proper names, and that they could use paper and pencils as aids.’
    • ‘Energy cannot be counted, and the plural of the word is not in common use.’
    • ‘A word whose plural is particularly problematic is octopus.’
    • ‘The plural of loaf is loaves, the plural of thief is thieves.’
    • ‘Alumni is a masculine plural form; alumnae is the feminine plural.’
    • ‘"Contract " is singular, not plural.’
    1. 1.1the pluralThe plural number.
      ‘the verb is in the plural’
      • ‘Likewise, the King regularly calls the disputants, his subjects, thou in the singular and you in the plural.’
      • ‘In the plural, they can refer to members of the person's family.’

Origin

Late Middle English from Old French plurel or Latin pluralis, from plus, plur- ‘more’.