Word.ws English Dictionary

superplural

Syllables: su·per·plur·al/ˌs(j)upəːˈplʊəɹ(ə)l/US/ˌsupəɹˈplʊ(ə)ɹəl/

superplural noun: a term, word, etc., that describes a plurality greater than another plural.

Noun

superplural (plural superplurals)

  1. (also, attributive, metaphysics (ontology)) A term, word, etc., that describes a plurality greater than another plural.
    • The singular number, I understand, denotes one, and the plural more than one, but to describe the number of flies we have here would require a super-plural. It is not that we have merely 'more than one'—we have myriads of flies.[1916], Henry Hanna, “From Kizlar Dagh until the Withdrawal”, in The Pals at Suvla Bay: Being the Record of “D” Company of the 7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Dublin: E. Ponsonby […], →OCLC, page 124
    • [§ 41, page 45] Some nouns of singular form, already producing plural reactions may be further given plural suffixes; it is convenient to call these forms "super-plurals." […] [page 454] It appears that Super-plurals do not denote a large quantity of matter in one place, but a number of lots of...1935, D[avid] L[ockhart] R[obertson] Lorimer, The Burushaski Language (Instituttet for sammenlignende kulturforskning [Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture], Series B; 29), volume I...

Examples of superplural in a sentence

  • A superplural term would thus, loosely speaking, refer to several 'pluralities' at once, much as an ordinary plural term refers to several objects at once.2008 July, Øystein Linnebo, David Nicolas, “Superplurals in English”, in Michael Clark, editor, Analysis, volume 68, number 3 (New Series...
  • Our formalization thus brings out the fact that treating plurally exhaustive description involves dipping one's toes in the murky waters of the superplural.2016, Alex Oliver, Timothy Smiley, “Plural Descriptions”, in Plural Logic, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press...
  • All ways of talking about higher-order multitudes, where a many is one of a higher many, get into grammatical difficulties because all (or nearly all) languages lack superplurals, or pluplurals.2016, Peter Simons, “The Ontology and Logic of Higher-order Multitudes”, in Massimiliano Carrara, Alexandra Arapinis, Friederike Moltmann...
  • Barngarla has singular, dual, plural and what I call superplural.2020, Ghil‘ad Zuckermann, “Talknology in the Service of the Barngarla Language Reclamation”, in Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli...

Synonyms of superplural

Forms of superplural

pluralsuperplurals

Origin of superplural

PIE word *upér From super- (prefix meaning ‘greater in quantity than’) + plural.

Words that rhyme with superplural

36 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about superplural

What does superplural mean?
Superplural means a term, word, etc., that describes a plurality greater than another plural.
How do you use superplural in a sentence?
A superplural term would thus, loosely speaking, refer to several 'pluralities' at once, much as an ordinary plural term refers to several objects at once.
What part of speech is superplural?
Superplural is a noun.
How do you pronounce superplural?
Superplural is pronounced /ˌs(j)upəːˈplʊəɹ(ə)l/ (UK).
What is the plural of superplural?
The plural of superplural is superplurals.

Words near superplural in the dictionary

  1. superplexed
  2. superplexes
  3. superplexing
  4. superplume
  5. superplumes
  6. superplural
  7. superpluralism
  8. superpluralities
  9. superplurality
  10. superplurals
  11. superplus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: superplural (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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