hundreds and thousands

== English == === Etymology === From hundreds +‎ and +‎ thousands. Sense 2 (“tiny balls or strands of multicoloured sugar”) is from the fact that the confectionery is made up of numerous sugar pieces. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌhʌndɹəds n̩ ˈθaʊz(ə)ndz/ (General American) IPA(key): /ˌhʌndɹəds n̩ ˈθaʊz(ə)n(d)z/ Hyphenation: hun‧dreds and thou‧sands === Noun === hundreds and thousands pl (plural only) An indefinite but emphatically large number. 1864 September 12, W. T. Sherman, letter to James M. Calhoun, E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells, representing City Council of Atlanta, published in 1865, Joel Tyler Headley, Grant and Sherman: Their Campaigns and Generals, 2008, page 592, I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry, and with bleeding feet. 1949, A.S. Altekar, State and Government in Ancient India, reprinted 2001, page 148, It is clear that the sentence rather refers to numerous favours conferred upon the city and country population, the monetary value of which amounted to hundreds and thousands of rupees or contemporary coins. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Tiny balls or strands of multicoloured sugar, sprinkled over ice cream, desserts or party foods. Synonyms: (US) nonpareil, nonpareils, (US) sprinkles; see also Thesaurus:sprinkles ==== Alternative forms ==== 100s and 1000s, 100s & 1000s ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== dollarette fairy bread freckle === Further reading === nonpareils on Wikipedia.Wikipedia sprinkles on Wikipedia.Wikipedia hundreds and thousands (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia “hundreds and thousands” under “hundred, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2022. “hundreds and thousands, plural n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.