multiple

From French multiple, itself from Late Latin multiplus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʌltɪpl̩/

multiple (not comparable)

1. More than one (followed by plural).
   • 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

     Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. […] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

   My Swiss Army knife has multiple blades.

2. Having more than one element, part, component, or function, having more than one instance, occurring more than once, usually contrary to expectations (can be followed by a singular).

   Some states do explicitly prohibit multiple citizenship.

   It was a multiple pregnancy: the woman had triplets.

   Multiple registrations are an increasing problem for many social networking sites.

• (more than one): manifold, many, morefold, several; see also Thesaurus:manifold
• plural

• (many): paucal (rare)

multiple (plural multiples)

1. (mathematics) A whole number that can be divided by another number with no remainder.
   • 14, 21 and 70 are multiples of 7
2. (finance) Price-earnings ratio.
3. One of a set of the same thing; a duplicate.
   • 1996, Southeastern College Art Conference Review

     One might view this attempt to ensure the scarcity of a multiple as both a marketing ploy and form of elitism.

4. A single individual who has multiple personalities.
   • 2010, Ann M. Garvey, Ann's Multiple World of Personality: Regular No Cream, No Sugar

     I had seen its first show when it was a freebie, but I thought it made multiples in general look silly – no one changes clothes THAT much!

   • 2000, Henk Driessen, ‎Ton Otto, Perplexities of identification (page 115)

     Non-abused multiples have no need of doctors, and they have carved out a foothold of their own from where they speak confidently about their utopian vision of a multiple world.

5. One of a set of siblings produced by a multiple birth.
6. A chain store.
   • 1979, Management Today (page 96)

     The big advantage such multiples can offer over a purely catalogue operation is that winners can be given shopping vouchers enabling them to choose from goods on display in the multiples' many outlets (Woolworths, for example, has 1,000).

7. A discovery resulting from the work of many people throughout history, not merely the work of the person who makes the final connection.
   • 2016, Thomas Söderqvist, The History and Poetics of Scientific Biography (page 99)

     Merton's argument that all scientific discoveries are multiples would seem to contradict the theory of genius […]

• pull time

From Late Latin multiplus.

• IPA^(key): /myl.tipl/

• audio

  (file)

multiple (plural multiples)

1. multiple

multiple m (plural multiples)

1. (mathematics) Multiple.

• “multiple” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

multiple

1. feminine plural of multiplo

multiple

1. vocative masculine singular of multiplus

multiple

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of multipel.