multiplicity

plural multiplicities

1. countableuncountableThe state of being made of multiple diverse elements.

   Any failure of their predictions can be explained away by saying that the theory is not a schematic one, that a multiplicity of factors have to be considered, etc.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 366

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   Without consideration of the colony character of Malaysia in terms of its consistent interculturation with imperial and neoimperial power, multiplicity can easily be mistheorised as representing Saidian Orientalism or expatriates—such theorisations can be drawn from superficial reinterpretations of Taiwan's Tenryuubito phenomenon in recent years and Japan's Datsu-A Ron statement during the Meiji period.

   2017, Francis Chia-Hui Lin, Architectural Theorisations and Phenomena in Asia, page 194

   Synonyms: manifoldness, manifoldness, manyhood, manyness, morefold, multeity, multipleness, nonunity

2. countableuncountableA large indeterminate number.

   The combined events — the negotiations and the benefit — were a major step in addressing the multiplicity of concerns the group had been talking about for all those years at Doyles.

   1990 February 4, Pam Mitchell, “Pro-Union And Queer”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 5

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   The coronary Thorns did not only express the scorn of the imposers, by that figure into which they were contrived; but did also pierce his tender and sacred temples to a multiplicity of pains, by their numerous acuminations.

   1659, John Pearson, “Article IV”, in An Exposition of the Creed, 5th edition, published 1683, page 189

   They saddled themselves with the handling of light flows on a multiplicity of branch lines, and they sacrificed the speed, reliability and low cost of through train operation, even over the main arteries of the system.

   1962 December, “Dr. Beeching previews the plan for British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 377

   Synonyms: abundance, battalion, arseload, assload, bellyload, boatload, brimful, busload

3. countableuncountablemathematicsThe number of values for which a given condition holds.
4. countableuncountablecomputingThe number of instances that can occur on a given end of a relationship.
5. countableuncountablestatistical mechanicsThe number of microstates associated with a given macrostate.

   ... the maximum-entropy (maxent) solution is the one which occurs with greatest multiplicity.

   1988, G. Erickson, C.R. Smith, Maximum-Entropy and Bayesian Methods in Science and Engineering: Volume 2: Applications, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 357

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   In short , we are not replacing the old idea that “entropy is the logarithm of the multiplicity (times Boltzmann's constant). ” Rather , we are retaining that idea but are generalizing the notion of multiplicity.

   1999, Ralph Baierlein, Thermal Physics, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 329

6. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe condition whereby a person displays or experiences multiple distinct personalities or selves in one body.

   Synonyms: plurality, systemhood