multeity
(mʌlˈtiːɪtɪ)
[f. L. multus many, perh. after hæcceity.]
The quality or condition of being many (i.e. more than one); manifoldness.
| 1814 Coleridge Princ. Genial Crit. iii, The Philosopher of the later Platonic, or Alexandrine School, named the triangle the first-born of beauty, it being the first and simplest symbol of multëity in unity. 1817 ― Biog. Lit. xii. (1847) I. ii. 279 The conveniency of the scholastic phrase to..express the kind with the abstraction of degree, as for instance multeity instead of multitude. 1881 F. Y. Edgeworth Math. Psychics 50 That continuity of fluid, that multeity of atoms which constitute the foundations of the uniformities of Physics. 1891 Westcott Ess. 170 The central idea of the sacrament is placed in unity realised in multeity. |
b. concr. or semi-concr. A thing consisting of many individual parts or members.
| 1836 Fraser's Mag. XIII. 738 A sonnet consists of fourteen lines. What magic lies within that limitary multeity! 1894 19th Cent. Apr. 633 note, [History] tells only of the conflict of opposed multeities of men with organisation of each multeity for its hostile purpose. |