Majority
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 More than half (50%) of some group. countable, uncountable
"The majority agreed that the new proposal was the best."
- 2 the property resulting from being or relating to the greater in number of two parts; the main part wordnet
- 3 In a parliament or legislature, the difference in seats between the ruling party and the opposition; (UK) in an election, the difference in votes between the winning candidate and the second-place candidate, or between the winning candidate and all of the other candidates combined. countable, uncountable
"The ruling party had a narrow three-seat majority in the legislature."
- 4 (elections) more than half of the votes wordnet
- 5 Legal adulthood, age of majority. countable, dated, uncountable
"By the time I reached my majority, I had already been around the world twice."
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 the age at which persons are considered competent to manage their own affairs wordnet
- 7 The office held by a member of the armed forces in the rank of major. UK, countable, uncountable
"On receiving the news of his promotion, Charles Snodgrass said he was delighted to be entering his majority."
- 8 Ancestors; ancestry. countable, uncountable
"Of evil parents an evil generation, a posterity not unlike their majority; of mischievous progenitors, a venomous and destructive progeny."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"A democrat is a free citizen who yields to the will of the majority."
Etymology
From Middle French maiorité, from Medieval Latin maiōritātem, accusative of Latin maiōritās, from Latin maior (“greater”). Morphologically major + -ity.
Related phrases
More for "majority"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.