legion Hear it!

legion Definition

le·gion (lē′jən)

noun

  1. Rom. History a military division varying at times from 3,000 to 6,000 foot soldiers, with additional cavalrymen
  2. a large group of soldiers; army
  3. a large number; multitude a legion of admirers
  4. American Legion, Foreign Legion, etc.

Etymology: OFr < L legio < legere, to choose: see logic

adjective

numerous; many: used in the predicate her honors were legion

legion Synonyms

legion

n.

  1. An army

    division, phalanx, brigade; see army 2, troops.

  2. A crowd

    multitude, body, group; see crowd 1, gathering.

legion Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • admirer: He's just a damn fine actor. Rennie has built his own personal legion of admirers with his slow, smoldering roles.
  • angel: Did God dispatch a legion of angels to protect His servant?
  • fan: For its legions of fans, Friends has been more like family during its 10-year run.
  • follower: That promise delighted many of his legion of followers, who turned out in force to catch a glimpse of their hero.
  • demon: Think back to the man possessed by a legion of demons.
  • supporter: I told him that he had a legion of supporters rooting for them.

Converse of object

  • join: Tony Sloane joined the Legion at the age of 18.
  • inspire: Hear the band and the songs that inspired a legion of kids to pick up a guitar and get down and dirty.
  • attract: QUALIFIED DIVERS The exciting dive sites of Ras Mohammed Marine Park are what attract the legions of experienced divers to Sharm each year.
  • command: By 69 he was still commanding a legion in Gaul.
  • grow: With her graceful melodies and evocative lyrics, Vienna has garnered critical acclaim and a rapidly growing legion of fans throughout the world.

Adjective modifier

  • Augustan: It was to be the base of the Second Augustan Legion for 200 years.
  • Theban: He was supposedly a soldier of the Theban Legion, martyred along with 50 soldiers in c. 304.
  • tenth: The twentieth legion had an emblem of a boar but so too did the tenth legion, the one you mean.
  • Arab: Late in the year the Reserve Mobile Force was merged with the Police to become the Arab Legion.
  • 9th: It became a township of the Romans and was the home of the 9th legion.
  • 20th: A section of the Roman army, known as the 20th Legion, will be based in the fortress.

Noun used with modifier

  • twelve: Thinkest thou y t I cannot now pray to my Father & he shall give me more then twelve legions of angels.
  • rider: Scale subsidy schedule of the citizen free riders legions.
  • morning: Highlights during the it can only mornings legions of.
legion Quotes

   To begin with, I was born with an unreasonably large stock of relations, who have increased and multiplied ever since. My aunts and uncles were legion, and my cousins as the sands of the sea without number. Consequently, even a low death-rate meant, in the course of mere natural decay, a tolerably steady supply of funerals for a by no means affectionate but exceedingly clannish family to go to. Add to this that the town we lived in, being divided in religious opinion, buried its dead in two great cemeteries, each of which was held by the opposite faction to be the ante- chamber of perdition, and by its own patrons to be the gate of paradise.

—Shaw, George Bernard

And he asked him,What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

—Bible (NewTestament)

The cross of the Legion of Honour has been conferred upon me. However, few escape that distinction.

—Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens

   The remarkable legion of the unremarked, whose individual opinions are not colorful or different enough to make news, but whose collective opinion, when crystallized, can make history.

—Safire,William

It is not enough to refuse the Legion d'Honneur.One should never have deserved it.

—Satie, Erik Alfred Leslie