majority

plural majorities

1. countableuncountableMore than half (50%) of some group.

   The majority agreed that the new proposal was the best.

   4 more examples

   Those opposing the building plans were in the majority, so the building project was canceled.

   The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.

   1803, Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution

   But in 1912 the American people gave the Democrats another opportunity, and under the leadership of Woodrow Wilson we swept the country from sea to sea. At the end of that historic contest we had the Presidency, the Senate by a working majority, and the House by an overwhelming majority.

   1920, Champ Clark, Democratic Achievement

   They and the airline itself described an internal process that requires multiple departments to manually redesign the airline’s schedule – a system that works “the vast majority of the time,” Southwest said in a statement.

   2022 December 30, Gregory Wallace, “Insiders at Southwest reveal how the airline’s service imploded”, in CNN, archived from the original on 25 Jul 2024

   Synonyms: absolute majority · Antonyms: minority

2. broadlycountableuncommonuncountableAny share or fraction that is bigger than any one of its counterpart shares or fractions (of the same whole).
3. countableuncountableIn 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.

   The winner with 53% had a 6% majority over the loser with 47%.

   2 more examples

   The ruling party had a narrow three-seat majority in the legislature.

   Now, there is talk of Democrats potentially being locked out of a Senate majority for a time to come because of trends in the electorate. […] This shouldn’t be surprising. As political analyst Sean Trende posited in the book “The Lost Majority,” history is filled with examples of majorities falling apart and the parties coming in and out of power.

   2021 October 17, Harry Enten, “Why neither party has a sustainable political majority”, in CNN, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2022

4. countabledateduncountableLegal adulthood, age of majority.

   By the time I reached my majority, I had already been around the world twice.

5. UKcountableuncountableThe office held by a member of the armed forces in the rank of major.

   On receiving the news of his promotion, Charles Snodgrass said he was delighted to be entering his majority.

   1 more example

   He was a captain before he went to the front, and following the Argonne battles he got his majority and the command of the divisional machine-guns.

   1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 8, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 150

6. countableuncountableAncestors; ancestry.

   Of evil parents an evil generation, a posterity not unlike their majority; of mischievous progenitors, a venomous and destructive progeny.

   1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC