multiplicityn.
/ˌmʌltᵻˈplɪsᵻti/, U.S. /ˌməltəˈplɪsᵻdi/ I. The quality or condition of being manifold.† 2. Philosophy. In Kantian philosophy: = manifold n.1 3a. Obsolete. rare.
1.
a. The quality or condition of being multiplex or manifold; manifold variety.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > plurality > [noun]
pluralitya1398
multiplicityc1454
moreness1611
manya1620
plural1655
multeity1814
several-fold1892
c1454 R. Pecock Folewer to Donet 115 (MED) Þer kanne no man haue eny ground to proue þe seid multiplicite or þe seid multiplied dyuersite in þe þingis now rehercid, saue oonli multiplicite and dyuersite of wordis.
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke Annot. sig. *4 By this, which in dupla and tripla is spoken, may all other things concerning proportions of multiplicity be easily vnderstoode.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 143 Cerberus himselfe with his three heads signified the multiplicity of Diuels.
1659 J. Pearson Expos. Apostles Creed 641 The infinity of the devine essence is incapable of multiplicity.
1701 N. Grew Cosmol. Sacra i. v. §13 As the manifold Variation of the Parts, so the Multiplicity of the Use of each Part, is very wonderful.
1825 T. B. Macaulay Milton in Edinb. Rev. Aug. 318 With the greatest precision and multiplicity in its details.
1873 J. A. Symonds Stud. Greek Poets ix. 297 The Greek Drama owed its power to the qualities of regularity and simplicity: the strength of the modern lies in subtlety and multiplicity.
1884 J. R. Seeley in Contemp. Rev. Nov. 654 In Nature..the unity is much less obvious than the multiplicity.
1919 W. Lewis Caliph's Design (1986) 157 The spiritual absolute that underlies the surface multiplicity of phenomena.
1978 I. Berlin Russian Thinkers 48 Tolstoy..saw the manifold objects and situations on earth in their full multiplicity.
1982 W. L. Heat Moon Blue Highways ii. xvii. 83 Hindus count three hundred thirty million gods. Their point isn't the accuracy of the count but the multiplicity of the godhead.
b. An instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > plurality > great number, numerousness > [noun] > with variety
manifold?1440
multiplicity1587
1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. ii. 16 Of vnitie or one in nombering, proceedeth..all the multiplicities [Fr. toutes les multiplicitez]..we see.
1602 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) xiii. lxxviii. 323 Of One all Multiplicities Formes, Hermonies,..Be..produced and begot.
1646 J. Gaule Select Cases Conscience 11 Haply..at some purer Times of the Church, a Witch may not then and there be found..at least wise.., not in those Multitudes, or Multiplicities.
a1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1860) IV. xxv. 23 When a whole is divided into its parts, these parts may..be themselves still connected multiplicities.
1878 W. Stubbs Constit. Hist. (ed. 2) III. xxi. 567 The diversities and multiplicities of legal usages.
1990 L. Hutcheon in G. Lynch & D. Rampton Canad. Ess. (1991) 343 Today it is the multiplicities and duplicities of the shiftings of language that attract poets to ironies.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > idealism > [noun] > Kantianism > elements of
conception1701
schematism1794
categorical imperative1796
intuition1796
matter1796
receptivity1796
schema1796
dialectic1797
multifarious1798
reciprocity1799
form1803
synthesis1817
Anschauung1820
manifold?1822
category1829
modality1836
multiplex1836
predicable1838
multiple1839
multiplicity1839
presentmenta1842
elanguescence1855
1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 176/1 The consciousness of the individual in this multiplicity is effected by the imagination, which combines them into a whole.
3. Mathematics. The number of times, for a given root a, that (x − a) occurs as a factor of f(x) (or its Taylor expansion about the point x = a). Also: the number of times that a given prime occurs in the expression of a number as a product of primes; an occurrence of a prime so repeated (e.g. counting multiplicities there are three factors of 12 = 2 × 2 × 3).
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > [noun] > multiplication > times
sithesOE
such five (as or so)OE
timesc1410
times1610
multiplicity1841
1841 J. J. Sylvester in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 18 136 I use the word multiplicity to denote a number, and distinguish between the total and partial multiplicities of the roots of an algebraic equation.
1887 A. Cayley Coll. Math. Papers (1897) XII. 463 We might..have symbols of indefinite multiplicity (x, y, z, w,..), including within them all finite multiplicities, viz. (x, y) meaning (x, y, O, O,..).
1951 W. W. Elliott & E. R. C. Miles College Math. (ed. 2) vii. 102 We defined the term multiplicity of a root of the equation f(x) = 0. The order of a root is the same as its multiplicity.
1966 Math. Rev. 31 25/1 μ(n) = 1 or −1..contains an even or odd number of prime factors, counting multiplicities.
1986 C. W. Norman Undergraduate Algebra iv. 123 Let f be a polynomial of non-negative degree n over the field F. Then f has at most n zeros in F, each zero being counted according to its multiplicity.
1990 Q. Jrnl. Math. 41 127 The longest chain of subgroups of A..is the number of prime divisors of A, counting multiplicities, if A is soluble.
4. Medicine. The presence of more than one focus of tumour or other disease in an organ or in the body.
ΚΠ
1851 J. Paget Lect. Tumours vi. 70 Multiplicity is sufficiently marked in the cases of the hands and feet.
1872 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. lxiv. 735 These black cancers have..one peculiarity, and that is in their tendency to multiplicity.
1966 Ann. Otol., Rhinol. & Laryngol. 75 114 (title) Multiplicity and familial incidence of carotid body and glomus jugulare tumors.
2002 Life Sci. 71 421 In vivo, OA [= okadaic acid] elicited delayed papilloma formation and reduced tumor multiplicity.
5. Physics. The number of components (whether one or several) in a multiplet; spec. (a) the quantity 2S + 1, where S is the spin quantum number of a term; (b) the quantity 2I + 1, where I is the isospin of a charge multiplet.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > electron spin > multiplet > [noun] > number of components in
multiplicity1923
spin multiplicity1956
1923 H. L. Brose tr. A. J. W. Sommerfeld Atomic Struct. & Spectral Lines vi. 385 Those terms are defined as similar which have the same multiplicity and the same azimuthal quantum number.
1929 Trans. Faraday Soc. 25 672 Next, the coupling between spin momenta of the electrons gave a ‘resultant’ spin vector S, which determined the multiplicity.
1934 H. E. White Introd. Atomic Spectra xiv. 249 Spectral terms arising from successive elements in the periodic table alternate between even and odd multiplicities.
1948 G. R. Harrison et al. Pract. Spectrosc. x. 241 For two electrons, S = 0 or 1, depending on whether the two spins are antiparallel or parallel. Hence atomic spectra that arise from two electrons (helium and the alkaline-earth metals..) can have multiplicities of 1 (that is, no splitting of levels because of spin) or 3 (splitting of each level into three).
1972 Physics Bull. Feb. 92/1 A further interesting feature which these multiplets illustrate is the greater bonding of the states of lower multiplicity.
1987 K. A. Rubinson Chem. Anal. xix. 780 Hyperfine splitting patterns get more complicated as the number of equivalent photons increases... The number of lines in the splitting pattern is called the multiplicity.
6. Biology. The number of infectious virions added per susceptible host cell in a given experimental system; chiefly in multiplicity of infection.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > measure > [noun] > ratio
Weber's law1864
multiplicity1947
osmolality1947
osmolarity1948
1947 S. E. Luria in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 33 259 (heading) Dependence of the probability of reactivation on the multiplicity of infection.
1964 W. Hayes Genetics of Bacteria & their Viruses xvi. 367 If a suspension of virulent phage is added to a growing culture of sensitive bacteria in broth, so that the number of phage particles exceeds the number of bacteria (multiplicity of infection = >1),..the culture becomes clear, as a result of the infection and lysis of virtually all the bacteria.
1974 Nature 11 Oct. 542/1 Chang cells in suspension were infected at an input multiplicity of 10.
1990 T. G. Wreghitt & P. Morgan-Capner ELISA in Clin. Microbiol. Lab. vii. 100 Monolayers are infected with stock virus..at a multiplicity of infection of approximately one.
II. A large number of something.† 8. the multiplicity of: the majority of. Obsolete. rare.
7. A large number or variety of.
a. With determiner, followed by a singular collective noun.
ΚΠ
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 504 In that one significant word (Cariosa) hee said more than could be expressed possibly by any multiplicity [L. ulla copia, but cf. Fr. 1562 multiplicité] of language whatsoeuer.
1617 J. Hales Serm. Oxf. 8 These places that are so fertile..of interpretation, and yeeld a multiplicity of sense.
1668 Earl of Clarendon Vindic. in Tracts (1727) 39 Everybody remembers the multiplicity of business the king was incumbent to at that time.
1746 J. Hervey Medit. (1818) 108 Wisely they withdrew from that immense multiplicity of learning.
1784 E. Allen Reason vii. §3. 261 Certain laws..have since been called the Blue Laws, in consequence of the multiplicity of superstition, with which they abounded.
1816 J. Austen Emma III. xiv. 271 From the confusion of my mind, and the multiplicity of business falling on me at once, [etc.] . View more context for this quotation
1876 F. Harrison Choice Bks. (1886) iv. 90 Since which date, let us trust, the multiplicity of print and the habits of desultory reading have considerably abated.
1990 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 31 May 11/4 It is undoubtedly further proof of the scope of Picasso's genius and achievement that his work can accept such a multiplicity of interpretation and approach.
b. With determiner, followed by a plural noun.
ΚΠ
1604 R. Dallington View of Fraunce sig. X3 Such multiplicity of words he hath.
1627 M. Drayton Moone-calfe in Battaile Agincourt 162 That on the Stationers Stall, who passing lookes, To see the multiplicity of Bookes, That pester it.
1659 H. Slingsby Diary (1836) 356 T'was all the night as bright as day with the multiplisity of bone fires.
1659 J. Pearson Expos. Apostles Creed 384 The coronary thorns..did..pierce his..temples to a multiplicity of pains, by their numerous acuminations.
1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 176. ⁋8 I..am distracted with such a Multiplicity of entertaining Objects, that I am lost in the Variety.
1764 J. Otis Rights Brit. Colonies 53 There are in his book some good hints, but a multiplicity of mistakes in fact, and errors in matters of right.
1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. v. 73 Like one who had always a multiplicity of tasks on hand.
1860 G. B. Prescott Electr. Telegr. 243 A few large bells would be preferable to this multiplicity of smaller ones.
1885 J. Payn Talk of Town II. 138 It was not the least like a dressing-room except that it had a multiplicity of mirrors.
1960 M. McLuhan Let. 14 Dec. (1987) 275 Rising levels of information impose a multiplicity of roles where..there had been specialism.
1987 W. Raeper George MacDonald xvi. 150 That one symbol can have a multiplicity of meanings prohibits tying the ‘meaning’ down to a one-to-one allegorical correspondence.
c. Without determiner. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1611 T. Heywood Golden Age iii. sig. E4v Circumuailed With multiplicity of distempratures.
1628 R. Le Grys tr. J. Barclay Argenis iii. 188 Argenis being confounded with multiplicity of griefs.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. ii. 129 Which will avoid..multiplicity of terms for the future.
a1734 R. North Life Sir D. North & Rev. J. North (1744) 240 After he was grown old and much worn by Multiplicity of Business.
1769 E. Bancroft Ess. Nat. Hist. Guiana 378 Multiplicity of law-suits are universally allowed to be detrimental to new countries.
1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 274 If only Dorian and Phrygian harmonies are used in our songs and melodies, we shall not want multiplicity of notes or a panharmonic scale.
1928 N.E.D. at Wordiness Excess or multiplicity of words.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > plurality > great number, numerousness > [noun] > greater number, majority
moeOE
unfewc1175
most?a1400
most forcea1400
substancea1413
overmatch1542
flush1592
the (great, vast) mass of1604
the millions1604
stream1614
numbers1638
the multiplicity of1639
majority1650
1639 in J. Nalson Impartial Coll. of Great Affairs of State (1682) I. 279 The Multiplicity of the People are mean conditioned.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.c1454