multiplicity

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The state of being made of multiple diverse elements.

   “Without consideration of the colony character of Malaysia in terms of its consistent interculturation with imperial and neoimperial power, multiplicity can easily be mistheorised as representing Saidian Orientalism or expatriates—such theorisations can be drawn from superficial reinterpretations of Taiwan's Tenryuubito phenomenon in recent years and Japan's Datsu-A Ron statement during the Meiji period.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A large indeterminate number.

   “The coronary Thorns did not only express the scorn of the imposers, by that figure into which they were contrived; but did also pierce his tender and sacred temples to a multiplicity of pains, by their numerous acuminations.”

   “They saddled themselves with the handling of light flows on a multiplicity of branch lines, and they sacrificed the speed, reliability and low cost of through train operation, even over the main arteries of the system.”

   “The combined events — the negotiations and the benefit — were a major step in addressing the multiplicity of concerns the group had been talking about for all those years at Doyles.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The number of values for which a given condition holds.
4. (countable, uncountable)The number of instances that can occur on a given end of a relationship.
5. (countable, uncountable)The number of microstates associated with a given macrostate.

   “In short , we are not replacing the old idea that “entropy is the logarithm of the multiplicity (times Boltzmann's constant). ” Rather , we are retaining that idea but are generalizing the notion of multiplicity.”

   “... the maximum-entropy (maxent) solution is the one which occurs with greatest multiplicity.”

6. (countable, uncountable)The condition whereby a person displays or experiences multiple distinct personalities or selves in one body.