Word.ws English Dictionary

contained multitudes

contained multitudes is the simple past and past participle of contain multitudes.

Meaning of contain multitudes

Verb

contain multitudes (third-person singular simple present contains multitudes, present participle containing multitudes, simple past and past participle contained multitudes)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) 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.1855 July 4, Walt Whitman, “[Song of Myself]”, in Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [James and Andrew Rome], →OCLC, page 55

Questions about contained multitudes

What is contained multitudes the simple past and past participle of?
Contained multitudes is the simple past and past participle of contain multitudes.

Words near contained multitudes in the dictionary

  1. contain oneself
  2. containable
  3. containant
  4. containants
  5. contained
  6. contained multitudes
  7. contained oneself
  8. containee
  9. containees
  10. container
  11. container crane

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contained multitudes (page history and authors); contain multitudes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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