Noun

Singular majority

Plural majorities

majority (plural majorities)

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

   The majority agreed that the new proposal was the best.

   • 1920 Champ Clark, Democratic Achievement:

     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.

2. The difference between the winning vote and the rest of the votes

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

3. (dated) Legal adulthood

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

4. (UK) The 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.

A majority, also known as a simple majority in the U.S., is a subset of a group consisting of more than half of the group. This should not be confused with a plurality, which is a subset having the largest number of parts. A plurality is not necessarily a majority, as the largest subset may be less than half of the entire group. In British English, majority and plurality are often used as synonyms; it can also refer to the margin of vote separating the first-place finisher from the second-place finisher, so that a candidate who wins by 1000 votes may be said to have received "a majority of 1000 votes". The term "overall majority" is used in British English to refer to the difference between the number of seats won by the winning party in an election and the combined number of seats for all the other parties in parliament. The term "absolute majority" is used to indicate more than fifty percent of the vote.

For example, in a hypothetical group of 40 athletes there are:

• 15 association football players
• 10 sprinters
• 9 marathon runners
• 6 table tennis players

In this group, a majority would consist of more than half the total number of athletes, or 21 athletes. The group of all ball sport players together (15 football players + 6 table tennis players = 21) comprise a majority. However, football players, 15 in number, comprise a plurality, not a majority. In British English usage, football players would be described as having a majority of 5 (15 - 10) over sprinters, no individual sport has an absolute majority or an overall majority, and ball players have an overall majority of 2 (21 - 19) over the other sports.

A majority, also known as a simple majority in the U.S., is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group. This should not be confused with a plurality, which is a subset having the largest number of parts.

Sourced

• In our governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of government contrary to the sense of the constituents, but from the acts in which government is the mere instrument of the majority.
  • James Madison, letter to Thomas Jefferson (October 24, 1787). The Papers of James Madison, vol. 10, pp. 213-14, Chicago and Charlottesville, Virginia (1962-1991)

• In republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
  • James Madison, Speech at the Virginia Convention (1829). The Mind of the Founder: Sources of the Political Thought of James Madison, p. 512, ed. Marvin Meyers, Indianapolis (1973)

• Supreme power rests in the will of all or of the majority.
  • Georg Büchner, The Hessian Messenger (1834)

• In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 1, ch. 15 (1835)

• If you are cast in a different mould to the majority, it is no merit of yours: Nature did it.
  • Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, ch. 14 (1847)

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Sun May 9 06:22:50 2010