plural

See also: Plural and plurál

English

Alternative forms

• pl., pl (abbreviation)

Etymology

From Middle English plurelle, from Old French plurel (“plural”), Borrowed from Latin plūrālis (“of or belonging to more than one, belonging to many”, adjective), from plūs, plūris (“more”) + -ālis.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: plo͝or'-rəl, plô'-rəl, (obsolete) plyo͝or'-rəl, IPA^(key): /ˈplʊəɹ(ə)l/, /ˈplɔːɹ(ə)l/, (obsolete) /ˈpljʊəɹəl/
• (General American) enPR: plo͝oər'-əl, plûr'-əl, IPA^(key): /ˈplʊ(ə)ɹəl/, /ˈplɜɹəl/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈpluːɹəl/
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈplʉːɹəl/
• Rhymes: -ʊəɹəl
• Hyphenation: plur‧al

Adjective

plural (comparative more plural, superlative most plural)

1. Consisting of or containing more than one of something.

   Synonyms: manifold, multiple, morefold, several

   The notion of culture is one whose meanings are plural and shifting.

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona:

     Than plural faith which is too much by one: Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!

2. (grammar) In systems of number, not singular or not singular or dual.

   English nouns usually have singular and plural forms.

3. (comparable) Pluralistic.
   • 1987, Mircea Eliade, Charles J. Adams, editors, The Encyclopedia of religion, volume 3:

     Although the nation was far more plural than Canada in the number of its Christian groups

   • 2006, Suisheng Zhao, Debating political reform in China: rule of law vs. democratization, page 29:

     The Hong Kong and Singapore markets are way more "plural" than most Western economies, but they have not led to pluralistic politics.

   • 2007, Lachelle Renee Hannickel, From cultural transgressions to literary transformations: ..., page 195:

     History is perhaps more plural than traditionally imagined, leaving room for more groups to express their story.

   • 2009, Pille Valk, Teenagers' perspectives on the role of religion in their lives, ..., page 281:

     Generally the girls tend to perceive their social world as somewhat more plural than boys do. Several of these questions reveal that there are more boys (61%) than girls (39%) who 'do not know' about the religion of others

   • 2011, Harald E. Braun with Edward Vallance, The Renaissance Conscience, page 50:

     Yet More's conscience was responding to a world just a little more plural than the world he was born in

4. (multiplicity, not comparable, of a person) Having some form of multiplicity, especially dissociative identity disorder.

Derived terms

• additive plural
• associative plural
• broken plural
• cohort plural
• double plural
• first-person plural
• majestic plural
• plural intensive
• plural marriage
• plural noun
• plural of excellence
• plural of majesty
• plural of modesty
• pluralphobia
• plural relations
• plural system
• plural wife
• second-person plural
• sound plural
• summation plural
• superplural
• the plural of anecdote is not data
• third-person plural

 

Related terms

• singular

Translations

more than one

• Albanian: shumës (sq)
• Armenian: հոգնակի (hy) (hognaki)
• Bulgarian: множествен (bg) (množestven)
• Catalan: plural (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 複數 / 复数 (zh) (fùshù), 眾數 / 众数 (zh) (zhòngshù)

• Dutch: meervoudig (nl), meervoudige (nl)
• Esperanto: plurnombra
• Finnish: monikollinen (fi), monikko-
• French: pluriel (fr)
• Galician: plural (gl) m
• German: Plural-, pluralisch (de), plural (de), mehrfach (de), Mehrzahl-
• Greek: πληθυντικός (el) (plithyntikós)

  Ancient: πληθυντικός (plēthuntikós)

• Hebrew: לשון רבים (lišon rabim)
• Hindi: अनेक (hi) (anek)
• Icelandic: fleir-, marg-, fleirtölu-, í fleirtölu
• Ido: plurala (io)
• Indonesian: jamak (id)
• Irish: iolra (ga)
• Italian: plurale (it)
• Japanese: 複数 (ja) (ふくすう, fukusū)
• Korean: 복수(複數) (ko) (boksu)
• Latin: plūrālis
• Ligurian: plurâle
• Malay: jamak (ms)
• Occitan: plural (oc)
• Persian: جمع (fa) (jam'), پر (fa) (porr) (archaic)
• Polish: mnogi (pl)
• Portuguese: plural (pt)
• Romanian: plural (ro)
• Russian: мно́жественный (ru) (mnóžestvennyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: iolra
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: множински, плурални

  Roman: množinski (sh), pluralni (sh)

• Spanish: plural (es)
• Swedish: plural (sv), flertal (sv)
• Thai: พหูพจน์ (th) (pá-hǔu-pót)
• Turkish: çok (tr)
• Ukrainian: множи́нний (množýnnyj) (grammar), чисельний (čyselʹnyj)
• Volapük: plunumik (vo)
• Walloon: pluriyal (wa)

Noun

plural (plural plurals)

1. (grammar, uncountable) The plural number. In English, referring to more or less than one of something.
   • 1895, William W. Goodwin, A Greek Grammar. Revised and enlarged., page 34:

     "There are three numbers; the singular, the dual, and the plural. [...] The dual is sometimes used to denote two objects, but even here the plural is more common."

2. (grammar, countable) A word in the form in which it potentially refers to something other than one person or thing; and other than two things if the language has a dual form.

   The plural of 'cat' is 'cats', but the plural of 'child' is 'children'.

3. (multiplicity, countable) A person with some form of multiplicity, particularly dissociative identity disorder.

   Synonyms: multiple, system

   • 2016, Lori F. Clarke, “Embracing Polyphony: Voices, Improvisation, and the Hearing Voices Network”, in Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice, volume 5, number 2, page 6:

     Singlet and monocultural identity is so normalized that many voice hearers and plurals don’t share their experiences with anyone, living in isolation (and sometimes in poverty) and spending considerable inner resources to manage postures and performances of ‘mental health’.

   • 2020, Elizabeth Schechter, “What we can learn about respect and identity from plurals”, in JPCA Mag, number 1, page 38:

     More strongly, respect might require that singlets themselves accept, in the context of interacting with plurals, that people are truly distinct people.

   • 2020, Tynan Drake, "Intersectional Representation: LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse voices in transmedia fiction", paper submitted to Ball State University, page 14:

     Autistics, plurals, and gender nonconforming individuals are all stigmatized as not being capable of understanding their own experiences and are repeatedly attacked with narratives intended to make them doubt their own emotions, memories, and sense of self.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:plural.

Usage notes

• Many languages have singular for one item and plural for more than one item. Some languages also have a dual form for two, a trial form for three, or a paucal form for several (e.g. Fijian). Other languages do not distinguish any of these categories.
• While the plural form generally refers to two or more persons or things, that is not always the case. The plural form is often used for zero persons or things, for fractional things in a quantity that is not equal to one, and for people or things when the quantity is unknown.

Derived terms

• plurale tantum

Related terms

• singular

Translations

the plural number

• Albanian: shumës (sq)
• Arabic: الْجَمْع (ar) (al-jamʕ)
• Azerbaijani: cəm (az)
• Belarusian: мно́жны лік m (mnóžny lik)
• Bulgarian: мно́жествено число́ n (mnóžestveno čisló)
• Catalan: plural (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 複數 / 复数 (zh) (fùshù), 眾數 / 众数 (zh) (zhòngshù)

• Danish: flertal (da) n
• Dutch: meervoud (nl) n
• Esperanto: multenombro (eo)
• Estonian: mitmus (et)
• Finnish: monikko (fi)
• French: pluriel (fr) m
• Galician: plural (gl) m
• German: Mehrzahl (de) f, Plural (de) m
• Hungarian: többes szám (hu)
• Japanese: 複数 (ja) (ふくすう, fukusū)
• Kazakh: көптік жалғау (köptık jalğau)
• Korean: 복수(複數) (ko) (boksu)
• Kyrgyz: көптүк сан (ky) (köptük san), көптүк (ky) (köptük)
• Latin: (numerus (la)) pluralis, numerus multitudinis, multitudo (la), pluralitas
• Latvian: daudzskaitlis (lv) m
• Lithuanian: daugiskaita (lt) f
• Macedonian: множина f (množina), мн. (mk) f (mn.)
• Mongolian: олон тоо (olon too)
• Northern Sami: ^{(please verify)} máŋggaidlohku
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flertall (no) n

• Persian: جمع (fa) (jam')
• Polish: liczba mnoga (pl) f
• Portuguese: plural (pt) m
• Russian: мно́жественное число́ (ru) n (mnóžestvennoje čisló), мн. ч. n (mn. č.), мн. n (mn.)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: множѝна f, плу̀ра̄л m

  Roman: množìna (sh) f, plùrāl (sh) m

• Slovak: množné číslo, plurál (sk)
• Slovene: množina (sl) f
• Spanish: plural (es)
• Swedish: flertal (sv) n, pluralis (sv) n
• Tagalog: maramihan
• Tajik: ҷамъ (tg) (jamʾ)
• Ukrainian: множина́ (uk) f (množyná)
• Uyghur: كۆپلۈك سان (köplük san)
• Vietnamese: số nhiều (vi)
• Walloon: pluriyal (wa) m
• Yiddish: מערצאָל f (mertsol)

word in plural form

• Albanian: shumës (sq)
• Arabic: جَمْع (ar) (jamʕ)
• Armenian: հոգնակի թիվ (hy) (hognaki tʻiv), հոգնակի (hy) (hognaki)
• Azerbaijani: cəm (az)
• Belarusian: мно́жны лік m (mnóžny lik)
• Bulgarian: мно́жествено число́ n (mnóžestveno čisló)
• Burmese: ဗဟုဝုစ်ကိန်း (my) (ba.hu.wuckin:)
• Catalan: plural (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 複數 / 复数 (zh) (fùshù), 眾數 / 众数 (zh) (zhòngshù)

• Czech: množné číslo (cs) n
• Danish: flertal (da) n
• Dutch: meervoud (nl) n
• Estonian: mitmus (et)
• Faroese: fleirtal (fo) n
• Finnish: monikko (fi)
• French: pluriel (fr) m
• Galician: plural (gl) m
• Georgian: მრავლობითი (ka) (mravlobiti), მრავლობითი რიცხვი (mravlobiti ricxvi)
• German: Plural (de) m, Pluralform (de) f
• Greek: πληθυντικός (el) m (plithyntikós)
• Hindi: बहुवचन (hi) m (bahuvcan)
• Hungarian: többes számú alak
• Icelandic: fleirtala (is) f
• Indonesian: bentuk jamak
• Ingrian: monikko
• Italian: plurale (it) m
• Japanese: 複数形 (ja) (ふくすうけい, fukusūkei), 複数 (ja) (ふくすう, fukusū)
• Khmer: ពហុវចនៈ (pĕəʼhuʼ vaccaʼnaʼ)
• Korean: 복수형(複數形) (boksuhyeong), 복수(複數) (ko) (boksu)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: پِڕژِمار (pirrjimar)

• Lao: ພະຫຸພົດ (pha hu phot)
• Latvian: daudzskaitlis (lv) m
• Lithuanian: daugiskaita (lt) f
• Luxembourgish: Pluriel (lb) m, Méizuel (lb) f
• Macedonian: множина f (množina)
• Middle Persian: ws
• Mongolian: олон тоо (olon too)
• Navajo: díkwíjíltʼéego, naaki dóó baʼąą, tááʼ dóó baʼąą
• Norman: pluriel m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flertall (no) n

• Occitan: plural (oc) m
• Old English: maniġfeald
• Persian: جمع (fa) (jam')
• Polish: liczba mnoga (pl) f
• Portuguese: plural (pt) m
• Romanian: plural (ro) n
• Russian: мно́жественное число́ (ru) n (mnóžestvennoje čisló)
• Scottish Gaelic: iolra m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: множина f, плурал m

  Roman: množina (sh) f, plural (sh) m

• Slovak: množné číslo n, plurál (sk) m
• Slovene: množina (sl) f
• Spanish: plural (es) m
• Swahili: wingi (sw)
• Swedish: plural (sv) n, pluralis (sv) n, flertal (sv) n
• Tajik: ҷамъ (tg) (jamʾ)
• Telugu: బహువచనము (te) (bahuvacanamu)
• Thai: พหูพจน์ (th) (pá-hǔu-pót)
• Turkish: çoğul (tr), çokluk (tr)
• Ukrainian: множина́ (uk) f (množyná)
• Vietnamese: số nhiều (vi)
• Volapük: plunum (vo)
• Votic: mõnikko
• Walloon: pluriyal (wa) m
• West Frisian: meartal (fy) n

See also

• (grammatical numbers) grammatical number; singular, dual, trial, quadral, quintal, paucal, plural ^{(Category: en:Grammar)}

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [pluˈɾal]

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

plural m or f (masculine and feminine plural plurals)

1. plural

   Antonym: singular

Noun

plural m (plural plurals)

1. plural

   Antonym: singular

Derived terms

• pluralisme
• pluralista

Related terms

• pluralitat

Further reading

• “plural” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “plural”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “plural” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “plural” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ply.ʁal/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

plural (feminine plurale, masculine plural pluraux, feminine plural plurales)

1. plural, large

Related terms

• pluralisme
• pluraliste
• pluralité
• pluri-
• pluriel

Further reading

• “plural”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin plūrālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pluˈɾal/ [pluˈɾɑɫ]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: plu‧ral

Adjective

plural m or f (plural plurais)

1. plural

   Antonym: singular

Derived terms

• pluralismo
• pluralista

Related terms

• pluralidade

Further reading

• “plural”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pluˈʁaːl/

Adjective

plural (strong nominative masculine singular pluraler, not comparable)

1. pluralistic

   Synonym: pluralistisch

Declension

Positive forms of plural (uncomparable)

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist plural	sie ist plural	es ist plural	sie sind plural
strong declension (without article)	nominative	pluraler	plurale	plurales	plurale
	genitive	pluralen	pluraler	pluralen	pluraler
	dative	pluralem	pluraler	pluralem	pluralen
	accusative	pluralen	plurale	plurales	plurale
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der plurale	die plurale	das plurale	die pluralen
	genitive	des pluralen	der pluralen	des pluralen	der pluralen
	dative	dem pluralen	der pluralen	dem pluralen	den pluralen
	accusative	den pluralen	die plurale	das plurale	die pluralen
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein pluraler	eine plurale	ein plurales	(keine) pluralen
	genitive	eines pluralen	einer pluralen	eines pluralen	(keiner) pluralen
	dative	einem pluralen	einer pluralen	einem pluralen	(keinen) pluralen
	accusative	einen pluralen	eine plurale	ein plurales	(keine) pluralen

References

• “plural” in Duden online
• “plural” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Indonesian

Etymology

From English plural.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈplural/ [ˈplu.ral]
• Syllabification: plu‧ral

Adjective

plural

1. plural (more than one)

   Synonyms: jamak, majemuk

Related terms

• pluralis
• pluralisme
• pluralistik
• pluralistis

 

Further reading

• “plural” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Maltese

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian plurale.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pluˈraːl/

Noun

plural m (plural plurali)

1. (grammar) plural

   plural sħiħ ― sound plural

   plural miksur ― broken plural

Related terms

• pluralista
• pluralistiku
• pluralità
• pluraliżmu

 

Middle English

Adjective

plural

1. Alternative form of plurelle

Occitan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Languedoc):

  (file)

Noun

plural m (plural plurals)

1. plural

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin plūrālis.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pluˈɾaw/ [pluˈɾaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pluˈɾal/ [pluˈɾaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pluˈɾal/ [pluˈɾaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /pluˈɾa.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: plu‧ral

Adjective

plural m or f (plural plurais)

1. plural (consisting of more than one things)

   Antonym: singular

Noun

plural m (plural plurais)

1. (grammar) plural (word referring to multiple things)

   Antonym: singular

Derived terms

• pluralismo
• pluralista

Related terms

• pluralidade

Further reading

• “plural”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024

Romanian

Alternative forms

• плурал (plural) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pluralis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pluˈral/
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: plu‧ral

Noun

plural n (plural plurali)

1. plural

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	plural	pluralul		plurali	pluralile
genitive-dative	plural	pluralului		plurali	pluralilor
vocative	pluralule			pluralilor

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plǔraːl/
• Hyphenation: plu‧ral

Noun

plùrāl m (Cyrillic spelling плу̀ра̄л)

1. (uncountable) plural

   Synonym: množìna

Declension

Declension of plural

	singular	plural
nominative	plùrāl	plurali
genitive	plurála	plurala
dative	pluralu	pluralima
accusative	plural	plurale
vocative	plurale	plurali
locative	pluralu	pluralima
instrumental	pluralom	pluralima

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plūrālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pluˈɾal/ [pluˈɾal]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: plu‧ral

Adjective

plural m or f (masculine and feminine plural plurales)

1. plural, multiple

   Antonym: singular

Noun

plural m (plural plurales)

1. (grammar) plural

   Antonym: singular

Derived terms

• pluralismo
• pluralista
• pluralmente

 

Related terms

• pluralidad

 

Further reading

• “plural”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10