myriad

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English

WOTD – 5 September 2009
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English numbers (edit)
100,000[a], [b]
 ←  9,000 [a], [b], [c] ←  9,999 10,000 11,000  →  100,000  → [a], [b]
1,000
    Cardinal: ten thousand, myriad
    Ordinal: ten-thousandth, myriadth
    Multiplier: tenthousandfold, myriadfold
    Group collective: myriad
    Metric collective prefix: myria-
    Metric fractional prefix: dimi-
    Number of years: decamillennium

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK, General American) IPA(key): /ˈmɪɹi.æd/, /ˈmɪɹi.əd/
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Noun

myriad (plural myriads)

  1. (historical) Ten thousand; 10,000
  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], , →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[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], 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 ...

Usage notes

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.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

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.

Translations

See also

Swedish

Noun

myriad c

  1. a myriad

Declension

Declension of myriad 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative myriad myriaden myriader myriaderna
Genitive myriads myriadens myriaders myriadernas

References

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia