legion means numerous; vast; very great in number.
legion is pronounced /ˈliː.d͡ʒən/.
Why “legion” is a great word
A great or countless number, or a large organized military body, especially of ancient Rome. From Middle English legioun (c. 1200), from Old French legion, from Latin legiō, legionem, from legō ("to gather, collect"). The generalized sense of "a large number" alludes to Mark 5:9, "My name is Legion, for we are many." Unlike a "multitude," a shapeless, formless throng, or a "regiment," a precise modern unit, a legion carries the weight of history and organized, collective force. It is the synchronized tramp of ten thousand sandaled feet on a paved road, the rustle of countless anonymous petitions in a bureaucratic hall, and the quiet, unnerving chorus of a single voice correcting, "We are many." It is the formalization of the innumerable, the point where quantity, gathered and directed, becomes its own kind of power.
Etymology
Attested (in Middle English, as legioun) around 1200, from Old French legion, from Latin legiō, legionem, from legō (“to gather, collect”); akin to legend, lecture. Doublet of León, which was borrowed from Spanish.
Generalized sense of “a large number” is due to an allusive phrase in Mark 5:9, "My name is Legion, for we are many".
adj
- Numerous; vast; very great in number.“Russia’s labor and capital resources are woefully inadequate to overcome the state’s needs and vulnerabilities, which are legion.”
noun
- The major unit or division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 infantry soldiers and 100 to 200 cavalry troops.
- A combined arms major military unit featuring cavalry, infantry, and artillery, including historical units such as the British Legion, and present-day units such as the Spanish Legion and the French Foreign Legion.
- A large military or semi-military unit trained for combat; any military force; an army, regiment; an armed, organized and assembled militia.“Efforts to unionize were routinely met with clubbings, shootings, jailings, blacklistings and executions, perpetrated not only by well-armed legions of company goons, but also by police officers, deputies, National Guardsmen and even regular soldiers.”
- A national organization or association of former servicemen, such as the American Legion.
- A large number of people; a multitude.“With all due respect to Aaron, every era seems to have had its legion of wrongdoers and shortcutters who used whatever science was available to get an edge.”
- A great number.“where one Sin has entered, Legions will force their Way through the fame Breach.”
- A group of orders inferior to a class; in scientific classification, a term occasionally used to express an assemblage of objects intermediate between an order and a class.
verb
- To form into legions.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- centurion 83% match — An officer of the ancient Roman army, in command of a century of soldiers. vs legion →
- multitude 83% match — A great amount or number, often of people; abundance, myriad, profusion. vs legion →
- vexillation 82% match — A company of soldiers (especially in ancient Rome) grouped under the same flag. vs legion →
- maniple 80% match — A division of the Roman army numbering 120 (or sometimes 60) soldiers exclusive of officers; (generally, obsolete) any small body of soldiers. vs legion →
- dright 79% match — A multitude; army; host. vs legion →
- decimate 79% match — To kill one-tenth of (a group), (historical, specifically) as a military punishment in the Roman army selected by lot, usually carried out by the surviving soldiers. vs legion →
- imperium 79% match — Supreme power; dominion. vs legion →
- centumvirate 79% match — A group of one hundred people, especially (politics) a council of about 100 men who share power or rule, particularly (historical) such a group in ancient Rome. vs legion →