legion
Pronunciation: /ˈliː.d͡ʒən/
The English word “legion” has 9 meanings listed here.
adjective
noun
- The major unit or division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 infantry soldiers and 100 to 200 cavalry troops.
- A combined arms major military unit featuring cavalry, infantry, and artillery, including historical units such as the British Legion, and present-day units such as the Spanish Legion and the French Foreign Legion.
- A large military or semi-military unit trained for combat; any military force; an army, regiment; an armed, organized and assembled militia.
- A national organization or association of former servicemen, such as the American Legion.
- A large number of people; a multitude.
- A great number.
- A group of orders inferior to a class; in scientific classification, a term occasionally used to express an assemblage of objects intermediate between an order and a class.
verb
- To form into legions.
Etymology
Attested (in Middle English, as legioun) around 1200, from Old French legion, from Latin legiō, legionem, from legō (“to gather, collect”); akin to legend, lecture. Doublet of León, which was borrowed from Spanish. Generalized sense of “a large number” is due to an allusive phrase in Mark 5:9, "My name is Legion, for we are many".
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.