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contain multitudes

verb
/kənˌteɪn ˈmʌltɪtjuːdz/UK/kənˌteɪn ˈmʌltəˌt(j)udz/US

Etymology

Coined by the American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) in his poem “Song of Myself” published in Leaves of Grass (1855): see the quotation.

Definitions

  1. To have a complex and apparently paradoxical nature

    To have a complex and apparently paradoxical nature; to be inconsistent, especially in a way that is ultimately admirable or noble.

    • Do I contradict myself? / Very well then … I contradict myself; / I am large … I contain multitudes.
    • [Sergei] Diaghilev would show Europe that Russia was large and contained multitudes: multitudes of social classes and occupations, and multitudes of indigenous musical styles, not all of them "Asiatic" or peasant.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for contain multitudes. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA