Word.ws English Dictionary

containing multitudes

containing multitudes is the present participle and gerund 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 containing multitudes

What is containing multitudes the present participle and gerund of?
Containing multitudes is the present participle and gerund of contain multitudes.

Words near containing multitudes in the dictionary

  1. containerships
  2. containerware
  3. containest
  4. containeth
  5. containing
  6. containing multitudes
  7. containing oneself
  8. containings
  9. containment
  10. containment boom
  11. containment booms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: containing 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “containing multitudes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/containing_multitudes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.