the many
Common people collectively
The many refers to ordinary people as a collective, contrasted with the few who hold power, wealth, or privilege.
The phrase carries democratic or populist overtones: a government that serves the many, not the few.
In philosophy, the many can refer to the multiplicity of things in the world, as opposed to underlying unity or oneness.
- collectivityUnified group state
- majorityOver half of total
- silent majorityPresumed moderate, publicly mute multitude
- crowdLarge public gathering
- pluralityLargest share among several
faceless crowd · populace · hoi polloi · great unwashed · aggregation · community · body politic · multiplicity · vox populi · teeming · proletariat · masses · democracy · multitude · sea of faces · demos · strength in numbers · totality
- PlatoPlato, academy, Academy, allegory, Republic
- Greek metaphysicsbeing, non-existence, nothingness, Plato, Aristotle
numerical quantity
the manythe few
Small select group
the one · the elite · the one percent · oligarchy · aristocracy