majority

== English == === Etymology === From Middle French maiorité, from Medieval Latin maiōritātem, accusative of Latin maiōritās, from Latin maior (“greater”). Morphologically major +‎ -ity. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /məˈd͡ʒɒ.ɹɪti/ (US) IPA(key): /məˈd͡ʒɑ.ɹɪti/, /məˈd͡ʒɔɹ.ɪti/ Rhymes: -ɒɹɪti === Noun === majority (countable and uncountable, plural majorities) More than half (50%) of some group. Antonym: minority Hyponyms: absolute majority, double majority, qualified majority, silent majority, simple majority, supermajority Coordinate term: plurality 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. (dated) Legal adulthood, age of majority. (UK) The office held by a member of the armed forces in the rank of major. Ancestors; ancestry. ==== Usage notes ==== Not to be confused with a plurality, i.e. the greatest share of a total (which may be less than half). In cases of votes, the terms simple majority or relative majority are used to explicitly clarify a motion needs more votes in support of a proposal than against it; whereas the term absolute majority refers to more than half of all votes cast, including blanks and abstentions. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== ==== Collocations ==== ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== === See also === Thesaurus:quantifier === Further reading === “majority”, in OneLook Dictionary Search. “majority”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present. “majority”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN. majority in Britannica Dictionary