LEGION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does legion mean? 

• LEGION (noun)
  The noun LEGION has 4 senses:

1. archaic terms for army

2. association of ex-servicemen

3. a large military unit

4. a vast multitude

  Familiarity information: LEGION used as a noun is uncommon.

• LEGION (adjective)
  The adjective LEGION has 1 sense:

1. amounting to a large indefinite number

  Familiarity information: LEGION used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEGION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Archaic terms for army

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

host; legion

Hypernyms ("legion" is a kind of...):

army; ground forces; regular army (a permanent organization of the military land forces of a nation or state)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "legion"):

Roman Legion (a division of from 3000 to 6000 men (including cavalry) in the Roman army)

Sabaoth ((plural) hosts or armies; used in the book of Romans in the New Testament)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Association of ex-servicemen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

the American Legion

Hypernyms ("legion" is a kind of...):

association (a formal organization of people or groups of people)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A large military unit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

the French Foreign Legion

Hypernyms ("legion" is a kind of...):

force; military force; military group; military unit (a unit that is part of some military service)

Meronyms (members of "legion"):

legionary; legionnaire (a soldier who is a member of a legion (especially the French Foreign Legion))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "legion"):

foreign legion (a military unit composed of foreign volunteers who serve the state)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A vast multitude

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

horde; host; legion

Hypernyms ("legion" is a kind of...):

concourse; multitude; throng (a large gathering of people)

• LEGION (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Amounting to a large indefinite number

Synonyms:

legion; numerous

Context example:

Palomar's fans are legion

Similar:

many (a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by 'as' or 'too' or 'so' or 'that'; amounting to a large but indefinite number)

 Context examples 

You belong with the legions of toil, with all that is low, and vulgar, and unbeautiful.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Use of optical coherence tomography to capture ulta-high resolution images of tissue surfaces which can be used to identify cancerous legions.

(Optical Biopsy, NCI Thesaurus)

Had He wished help, he said, He could have summoned legions of archangels from heaven, so what need had He of your poor bow and arrow?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Is it strange that when Arpad and his legions swept through the Hungarian fatherland he found us here when he reached the frontier; that the Honfoglalas was completed there?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

On the other hand, there were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Oh, Adele will go to school—I have settled that already; nor do I mean to torment you with the hideous associations and recollections of Thornfield Hall—this accursed place—this tent of Achan—this insolent vault, offering the ghastliness of living death to the light of the open sky—this narrow stone hell, with its one real fiend, worse than a legion of such as we imagine.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)