myriad

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myriad

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From French myriade, from Late Latin mȳriadem (accusative of mȳrias), from Ancient Greek μυριάς (muriás, “number of 10,000”), from μυρίος (muríos, “numberless, countless, infinite”).

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪɹi.æd/, /ˈmɪɹi.əd/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

myriad (plural myriads)

1. (formal) Ten thousand; 10,000
   1. Synonym of decamillennium: a period of 10000 years.
2. A countless number or multitude (of specified things)

   Earth hosts a myriad of animals.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 622–624:

     O Myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers / Matchleſs, but with th' Almighty, and that ſtrife / Was not inglorious, though th' event was dire,

   • 1834, L E L, chapter XXIX, in Francesca Carrara. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 239:

     A myriad of beginnings to her intended discourse darted into her mind; but, as is usual in such cases, she chose the one the very worst suited to her purpose. "I never intend to marry," said she, in a faltering voice.

   • 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:

     I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, / And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them, / I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war, […]

   • 1914, Henry Graham Dakyns, Xenophon, Cyropaedia, Book I:

     How far he surpassed them all may be felt if we remember that no Scythian, although the Scythians are reckoned by their myriads, has ever succeeded in dominating a foreign nation ...

Used as an adjective (see below), myriad requires neither an article before it nor a preposition after. Because of this, some consider the usage described in sense 2 above, where 'myriad' acts as part of a nominal (or noun) group (that is, "a myriad of animals"), to be tautological.

• permyriad

• tens of thousands

myriad (not comparable)

1. (modifying a singular noun) Multifaceted, having innumerable elements
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 131:

     one night he would be singing at the barred window and yelling down out of the soft myriad darkness of a May night; the next night he would be gone [...].

   • 2011 April 6–19, Kara Krekeler, "Researchers at Washington U. have 'itch' to cure problem", West End Word, 40 (7), p. 8:

     "As a clinician, it's a difficult symptom to treat," Cornelius said. "The end symptom may be the same, but what's causing it may be myriad."

2. (modifying a plural noun) Great in number; innumerable, multitudinous

   Earth hosts myriad animals.

   • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 September 2013:

     Driven by a perceived political need to adopt a hard-line stance, Mr. Cameron’s coalition government has imposed myriad new restrictions, the aim of which is to reduce net migration to Britain to below 100,000.

• plethora

myriad c

1. a myriad

• myriad in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)