Majority

Majority

A majority is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements. This can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset considered; i.e. a plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset considered may consist of less than half the set's elements. In British English, majority and plurality are often used as synonyms, and the term majority is also alternatively used to refer to the winning margin, i.e. the number of votes separating the first-place finisher from the second-place finisher.

Read more about Majority.

Famous quotes containing the word majority:

    To higher or lower ends, they [the majority of mankind] move too often with something of a sad countenance, with hurried and ignoble gait, becoming, unconsciously, something like thorns, in their anxiety to bear grapes; it being possible for people, in the pursuit of even great ends, to become themselves thin and impoverished in spirit and temper, thus diminishing the sum of perfection in the world, at its very sources.
    Walter Pater (1839–1894)

    Oh, how desperately bored, in spite of their grim determination to have a Good Time, the majority of pleasure-seekers really are!
    Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)

    In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.
    John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)