majority

majority

We are concerned here with three related uses, two of them relatively straightforward and one that gives rise to a difficulty:

1. majority = ‘a superiority in numbers’,

especially in political contexts, ‘the amount by which a winning vote exceeds the next’: The amendment was passed by a large majority / The labour candidate's majority was increased by 15%. The verb following this use is always singular (unless majority is used in the plural, this being the only sense in which plural number is idiomatic: MPs' majorities tend to be reduced). (Note that in AmE, majority means the amount by which the winning vote exceeds all the others, i.e. what in BrE is called an overall majority; for the meaning given above plurality is used.)

2. majority = ‘the greater number or part’.

• Any future Prime Minister to whom the donnish majority was prepared to give an honorary doctorate would be one whose policies found favour with them —Times, 1985

• The vast majority have now come to terms with their destiny —Encounter, 1987.

The verb following this use can be either singular or plural, depending on whether collectivity or individuality is the stronger notion. Majority is occasionally used in the plural in this meaning, although it is hardly idiomatic:

• Majorities in various countries are, of course, critical of American foreign policies —weblog, AmE 2004 [OEC].

3. majority of + noun.

Majority in this sense refers to a number of (countable) people or things, and the noun following of, together with the verb of which it is the subject, should be plural:

• A majority of them come from the Scheduled Castes —Times of India, 1972

• The majority of school buildings are dilapidated and decaying —Encounter, 1987.

• I fully accept that the vast majority of kids in South Woodham are good —new website, BrE 2004 [OEC].

Uses with singular nouns (the majority of the work / the majority of the time) are unidiomatic unless these are words such as group, population, public, etc. which denote a collection of individuals:

• Gillray, in common with the vast majority of his public, did not want to take the Jacobin side —M. Billig, 1991

• They are simply out of touch with the majority of the electorate and have been for many years —Bolton Evening News, 2003.

The following are incorrect: ☒ He spent the majority of [read: most of]

• his working life as a schoolteacher —television news, 1996

• ☒ The vast majority of [read: much the greatest part of or nearly all] music is execrable in quality —arts website, 2004.