Majority

How to spell majority

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce majority

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does majority mean?

1. nounThe greater number or larger part of a group, total, or set of votes.
2. nounThe age at which a person is legally recognised as an adult.

Majority in a sentence

• The majority of staff voted to keep the current shift pattern.

• On reaching the age of majority, she could sign the contract without a guardian.

• A clear majority of customers paid by card rather than cash.

• The trust fund is released to him only once he attains his majority.

Where does majority come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word travelled into English from the Latin maioritas, an abstract noun built on maior, meaning 'greater' or 'larger', which was itself the comparative form of magnus, 'great' or 'large'. English picked it up in the late 1500s, partly through the French majorité, and at first it carried the sense of being greater in rank or simply the condition of being older, which is why we still speak of reaching the 'age of majority'. From there it broadened to mean the greater number or larger part of any group, the meaning most of us use every day. The same maior root sits inside 'major' and 'mayor', and recognising that shared core helps with the spelling: it is major plus -ity, with no hidden vowel, so the trap is mainly the unstressed -or- in the middle.

How the word is built

• major- (from Latin maior: greater, larger)
• -ity (noun suffix forming an abstract state or quantity)