majority Hear it!

majority Definition

ma·jor·ity (mə jôr′ə tē, -jär′-)

noun pl. -·ties

  1. the greater part or larger number; more than half of a total
  2. ☆ the number by which the votes cast for the candidate, bill, etc. receiving more than half of the votes, exceed the remaining votes (Ex.: if candidate A gets 100 votes, candidate B, 50, and candidate C, 30, A has a majority of 20)
  3. the group, party, or faction with more than half of the votes
  4. the condition or time of having reached full legal age, with full legal rights and responsibilities
  5. Obsolete the state or quality of being greater
  6. Mil. the rank or position of a major

Etymology: Fr majorité < ML majoritas < L major: see major

majority Synonyms

majority

n.

  1. The larger part

    more than half, preponderance, greater number; see bulk 2.

  2. Legal maturity

    adulthood, manhood, womanhood, coming of age, prime of life, middle age, voting age, drinking age.

majority Law Definition

n

  1. The status of having attained the age of adulthood as set by law.
  2. More than fifty percent of a total (usually referring to people in a group voting in an election or on a matter placed before them).
majority Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • constitute: Their genes occupy as much as a third of the genome, and they also constitute the majority of known drug targets.

Adjective modifier

  • vast: The vast majority of people getting social services from the council have a right to direct payments.
  • overwhelming: The overwhelming majority of these journeys are made without any problem.
  • two-thirds: In Northern Ireland, a two-thirds Unionist majority is denied the right to run its own affairs in a devolved government.
  • qualified: The Council's preliminary decision was voted through in late December by a qualified majority.
  • parliamentary: Now without a parliamentary majority, Barak nevertheless survived two votes of confidence.

Modifies a noun

  • voting: Two resolutions were put forward with an overwhelming majority voting in favor of both.
  • vote: Officers of the NCP may be removed from office by a majority vote at an annual or special meeting of the SCP.
  • shareholder: The majority shareholder of the GAZ Group is Russian Machines holding, which is part of the Basic Element Group.
  • stake: The OTC business of the Japanese company Chugai, in which Roche has a majority stake, is not included.
  • verdict: Expect the rule is, majority verdict wins and if there isn't one you take the average.
  • stockholder: Become majority stockholder champions and some current tournaments the.

Noun used with modifier

  • two-third: In January the Lords confirmed with a similar two-thirds majority.

Preposition: in

  • favor: There was a clear majority in favor of both candidates.
  • parliament: But a majority in parliament must consist of at least 113 votes.

Preposition: of

  • respondent: The majority of respondents were in favor of regular review periods, ranging from one year to five.
  • population: The vast majority of the population will testify to feeling intense enjoyment.
  • vote: Decisions of the DC shall be by a simple majority of votes.
  • case: The survey showed the vast majority of cases did end with the father gaining access to children.
majority Quotes

   Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?

—Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Let me say it again, I don't believe in black majority rule ever in Rhodesia. Not in a thousand years.

—Smith, Ian Douglas

The Government of the absolute majority, instead of the Government of the people, isbut the Government of the strongest interests; and when not efficiently checked, it is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised.

—Calhoun,John Caldwell

What ismorality inany given time or place? It iswhat the majority thenand therehappento like, and immorality is what they dislike.

—Whitehead, Alfred North

Flertallet har aldrig retten pafi   sin side. Aldrig, siger jeg! Det er en af disse samfundslÖgnere, som en fri, t½nkende mand mafi   gÖre oprÖr imod. Hvem er det, som udgÖr flertallet af beboerne i et land? Er det de kloge folk, eller er det de'   dumme? Jeg t½nker, vi fafi  r vaere enige om, at dumme mennesker er tilstede i en ganske forskr½kkelig overv½ldende majoritet rundt omkring pafi   den hele vide jord. The majority never has right on its side.Never,I say! That is one of the social lies that a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against.Who makes up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men or the fools? I think we must agree that the fools are in a terrible overwhelming majority, all the wide world over.

—Ibsen, HenrikJohan

A majority is always the best repartee.

—Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

We consider ourselves to be free because no one in our society is allowed unlimited poweröno leader, faction, party or 'class', no majority, no government, church, corporation, trade, or professional association or trade union. The secret of its freedom is that it is composed of a multitude of organisations in the constitution of the best of which is reproduced that diffusion of power which is characteristic of the whole.

—Oakeshott, Michael Joseph

Un homme avec Dieu est toujours dans la majorite¤  . One man with God is always a majority.

—Knox,John

Today I see more clearly than yesterday that back of the problem of race and color, lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that isthefact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this is poverty, ignorance and disease of the majority of their fellowmen; that to maintain this privilege men have waged war until today war tends to become universal and continuous, and the excuse for this war continues largely to be color and race.

—Du Bois,W(illiam) E(dward) B(urghardt)

Putting a majority together is like a one-armed man wrapping cranberries.

—Dole, Bob (RobertJoseph)

There was a heated division of opinion in the lobbies during the interval but a small conservative majority took the view that it might be as well to remain in the theatre.

—Tynan, Kenneth