multitude
Plethos denotes a gathered body of people or a large quantity, including fish, brushwood, descendants, and sins.
The term most often denotes a collective body of people—assemblies, followers, residents, or other groups acting or being addressed together. It also marks a large quantity of nonhuman or abstract items, such as fish, brushwood, descendants, and sins.
Senses in use
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A gathered or collective body of people · dominant
In Acts 2:6, the nominative singular form identifies the people who assembled after the sound; the APB renders the clause, “the multitude assembled.” In Luke 1:10 the whole body of people is praying outside, while in Acts 4:32 the genitive singular form identifies those who had trusted as a united body. Acts 23:7 likewise depicts the collective group as split amid the Pharisees and Sadducees.
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A large quantity of things or abstract items · common
In Luke 5:6, the accusative singular form occurs with fish enclosed in a net, and the APB renders “a great multitude of fish.” Acts 28:3 uses the same accusative singular form for brushwood gathered for a fire; Hebrews 11:12 places the dative singular form with descendants compared to stars and sand. In 1 Peter 4:8, the accusative singular form stands with sins that love covers.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB variously presents the term as “multitude,” “assembly,” “population,” “crowds,” “great number,” and descriptions of large quantities. These English expressions confirm the verse-level contexts rather than establish separate lexical meanings.