Word of the Day

: February 15, 2009

myriad

noun MEER-ee-ud

What It Means

1 : ten thousand

2 : a great number

myriad in Context

The newspaper office received a myriad of e-mails telling them about the three incorrect clues in Sunday's crossword puzzle.

Did You Know?

In English, the "ten thousand" sense of "myriad" mostly appears in references to Ancient Greece, such as the following from Thirwall's History of Greece: "4000 men from Peloponnesus had fought at Thermopylae with 300 myriads." More often, however, English speakers use "myriad" in the broad sense -- both as a singular noun ("a myriad of tiny particles") and a plural noun ("myriads of tiny particles"). "Myriad" can also serve as an adjective meaning "innumerable" ("myriad particles"). "Myriad" comes from Greek "myrias," which in turn comes from "myrioi" ("countless" or "ten thousand"). A relative of "myriad" is "myriapod," which descends in part from the Greek word for "foot." A myriapod is a creature with many feet -- a centipede or millipede, that is.