MAJORITY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Majority

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/mədʒˈɔrəti/ Listen

noun

Majority n. (pl. majorities)

The quality or condition of being major or greater; superiority. Specifically:

(a)

The military rank of a major.

(b)

The condition of being of full age, or authorized by law to manage one's own affairs.

The greater number; more than half; as, a majority of mankind; a majority of the votes cast.

Ancestors; ancestry. (Obs.)

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; as, he is elected by a majority of five hundred votes. See Plurality.

To go over to the majority or To join the majority, to die.

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Etymology of 'Majority'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Majority" Quotes from Famous Books

... for some of the men were shy—she had to keep on repeating the invitation. She had scarcely time to glance at them, or raise her eyes from the cups which she was filling. As there were no saucers, it required a steady hand to prevent the tea from splashing on the counter. Such a large majority of the men took tea that she had to tell them that there was coffee. "Tea or coffee?" she would ask, with quickly ...

— There was a King in Egypt • Norma Lorimer

... was over inquisitive, {remarked}: "Are you going to save none of your property, Simonides?" He made reply: "All my {possessions} are about me." A few {only} made their escape by swimming, for the majority, being weighed down by their burdens, perished. Some thieves make their appearance, and seize what each person has saved, leaving them naked. Clazomenae, an ancient city, chanced to be near; to which the shipwrecked persons repaired. ...

— The Fables of Phdrus - Literally translated into English prose with notes • Phaedrus

... is running his theatre to make money," explained the Colonel," and the surest way to make money is to cater to the tastes of his patrons, the majority of whom demand picture plays of the more vivid sort, such as you and I complain of. So the fault lies not with the exhibitor but with the sensation-loving public. If Mr. Welland showed only such pictures as have good morals he would gain the patronage of Miss Stearne's twelve young ...

— Mary Louise • Edith van Dyne (one of L. Frank Baum's pen names)

... Caledonia, the New Hebrides, the Louisiade Archipelago; and stretching to the Papuan Islands, and for a doubtful extent beyond them to the north and west, form a sort of belt, or zone, of Negrito population, interposed between the Australians on the west and the inhabitants of the great majority of the Pacific ...

— Critiques and Addresses • Thomas Henry Huxley

... there was no dilly-dallying, no going back and wondering if she had done the right thing. Taking up her pencil, she began to jot down the names of those to be invited. Nora O'Day's name headed the list with Azzie Hogan's tagged on at the last. The majority of the girls were at class. Her only opportunity for seeing them was immediately before dinner or during study-hour in the evening, providing Mrs. Smiles did not ...

— Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall • Jean K. Baird

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