majority
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
majority/məˈʤɒrəti/
▶noun (pl. majorities)
- 1 the greater number.
- 2 Brit. the number by which the votes cast for one party or candidate exceed those for the next.
■ US the number by which votes for one candidate are more than those for all other candidates together.
- 3 the age when a person is legally a full adult, usually either 18 or 21.
- 4 the rank or office of a major.
– origin C16 (denoting superiority): from Fr. majorité, from med. L. majoritas, from L. major (see major).
usage: In its main sense, ‘the greater number’, majority should be used with countable nouns: the majority of cases. Use with uncountable nouns to mean ‘the greatest part’ (she ate the majority of the meal) should be avoided in standard English.
'majority' also found in these Oxford entries:
absolute majority
- adult
- Azeri
- bare
- basidiomycete
- best
- Bolshevik
- bony fish
- carry
- colubrid
- command
- controlling interest
- democracy
- dissent
- dissentient
- first
- generality
- herd instinct
- hung
- Hutu
- infant
- infidel
- landslide
- majoritarian
- majority rule
- majority verdict
- many
- marginal
- mass
- moral majority
- most
- over
- plurality
- proteasome
- safe seat
- second ballot
- Sinhalese
- Telugu
- thumping
- underprivileged
- utilitarianism
- vote
- vox populi
- Wee Free
