majority

Origin:

mid 16th century (denoting superiority): from French majorité, from medieval Latin majoritas, from Latin major (see major)

1 Strictly speaking, majority should be used with countable nouns to mean ‘the greater number’: the majority of cases. The use of majority with uncountable nouns to mean ‘the greatest part’ (I spent the majority of the day reading), although common in informal contexts, is not considered good standard English. 2 Majority means more than half: fifty-one out of a hundred is a majority. A plurality is the largest number among three or more. Consider the following scenarios: If Anne received 50 votes, Barry received 30, and Carlos received 20, then Anne received a plurality, and no candidate won a majority. If Anne got 35 votes, Barry 14, and Carlos 51, then Carlos won both the plurality and the majority.