majority

Universal Words noun (plural majorities) 1 [sing.+sing./pl.v.] ~ (of sb/sth) the largest part of a group of people or things: The majority of people interviewed prefer TV to radio. * The majority was / were in favour of banning smoking. * This treatment is not available in the vast majority of hospitals. * a majority decision (= one that is decided by what most people want) * In the nursing profession, women are in a / the majority. OPPMINORITY seealsoMORALMAJORITY, THESILENTMAJORITY 2 [C] ~ (over sb) the number of votes by which one political party wins an election; the number of votes by which one side in a discussion, etc. wins: She was elected by / with a majority of 749. * They had a large majority over their nearest rivals. * a clear (= large) majority * The government does not have an overall majority (= more members than all the other parties added together). * The resolution was carried by a huge majority. seealsoABSOLUTEMAJORITY 3 [C] (AmE) the difference between the number of votes given to the candidate who wins the election and the total number of votes of all the other candidates seealsoPLURALITY 4 [U] (law) the age at which you are legally considered to be an adult: The age of majority in Britain was reduced from 21 to 18 in 1970.