crowd
crowd
Pronunciation
The IPA phonetic spelling for "crowd" is /kraʊd/.
crowd: /kraʊd/
/k/ - voiceless velar stop
/r/ - voiced alveolar approximant
/aʊ/ - diphthong (as in "now")
/d/ - voiced alveolar stop
Word Form Variations
Noun:
Singular: crowd
Plural: crowds
Verb:
Base form: crowd
Third-person singular present: crowds
Present participle: crowding
Past tense: crowded
Past participle: crowded
Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms
Noun
A large gathering of people or things, typically gathered closely together and often without much order.
Synonyms: multitude, throng, gathering, host, assemblage, swarm
Antonyms: individual, solitude, handful, few
Example: A large crowd had gathered to watch the street performer.
(Informal) A particular group of people, especially one with shared interests or characteristics.
Synonyms: set, group, clique, circle, company, posse
Antonyms: outsider, stranger, loner
Example: He always hung out with the artsy crowd.
Verb
To fill a space so that there is little or no room for movement; to press or squeeze together.
Synonyms: pack, cram, throng, squeeze, cluster, congregate
Antonyms: disperse, scatter, clear, empty
Example: People began to crowd into the small elevator.
To move or push in a forceful or intrusive way.
Synonyms: push, jostle, shove, press, elbow
Antonyms: yield, retreat, back away
Example: Don't crowd me; I need my personal space.
To move too close to something or someone, often making them uncomfortable or blocking their view.
Synonyms: besiege, surround, overwhelm, inundate
Antonyms: avoid, leave alone, distance
Example: The paparazzi crowded the celebrity as she left the restaurant.
Examples of Use
Books:
"The crowd surged forward, a sea of faces eager for a glimpse of the king" (George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones, August 1996).
"She felt a sense of belonging among this crowd of aspiring artists, a camaraderie she hadn't found elsewhere" (Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere, September 2017).
Newspapers:
"A large crowd gathered in the city square to protest the new policy" (The New York Times).
"Despite the inclement weather, a resilient crowd cheered on the marathon runners" (The Guardian).
Online Publications:
"Social media algorithms can create echo chambers, where users are primarily exposed to content that reinforces their existing beliefs, effectively narrowing their online crowd" (TechCrunch.com).
"The band managed to crowd funding for their new album in just under a week, exceeding their initial goal" (Kickstarter.com).
Entertainment Mediums and Platforms:
Film: In the movie Gladiator (May 2000), Maximus delivers his famous line, "Are you not entertained?" to a roaring crowd in the Colosseum.
Music: The song "Crowded House" by Crowded House (June 1986) uses the word in its title to evoke a sense of a full, bustling home.
Television: A news report on CNN (July 2024) showed aerial footage of an immense crowd attending a political rally.
Video Game: In Cyberpunk 2077 (December 2020), the streets of Night City are often teeming with a diverse crowd of NPCs, creating a vibrant urban atmosphere.
General Public Discourse:
"Let's not crowd the entrance; everyone will get in eventually." (Heard at a concert venue).
"It's a tough crowd tonight, but I think we can win them over." (Comedian speaking about an audience).
"You need to step back; you're starting to crowd my personal space." (A common phrase used in social interactions, ongoing).
10 Quotes Using Crowd
"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." (Max Lucado)
"The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before." (Albert Einstein)
"Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you." (Margaret Thatcher)
"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." (Ralph Waldo Emer1son)
"For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love." (Francis Bacon)
"The crowd is his element, as the air is that of birds and water of fishes." (Charles Baudelaire)
"To understand the universe and life deeply, it is necessary to get away from the crowds because crowds means chattering, it means producing empty words, it means not thinking!" (Mehmet Murat ildan)
"Hysteria is impossible without an audience. Panicking by yourself is the same as laughing alone in an empty room. You feel really silly." (Chuck Palahniuk)
"The mass, whether it be a crowd or an army, is vile." (Benito Mussolini)
"The greatest fear in the world is of the opinions of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom." (2Osho)
Etymology
The word "crowd" has a long history, stemming from Old English.
Imagine a group of people or things all pushing or pressing together. That's essentially the original core idea of "crowd."
Old English: The word started as "crūdan" (pronounced something like "kroo-dan"). This was mainly used as a verb and meant "to press, to crush, to push forward, or to hurry." You might have heard it in reference to ships pressing forward, for example.
Middle English: It evolved into "crouden" or "crowdyn." The verb meaning continued, but around the late 1500s, the noun sense of "a large group of people" started to become common. Before that, for a "large group," people more commonly used words like "press" or "throng."
Modern English: From Middle English, we get our modern "crowd," used as both a verb (to pack things together, or for people to gather closely) and a noun (a large gathering of people or things).
So, in simple terms, "crowd" originally meant "to push" or "to press," and that sense of pushing and pressing together is how it came to mean a "large group" of things or people.
Phrases + Idioms Containing Crowd
Crowd control: The management of large groups of people to prevent disorder or danger.
Crowd pleaser: Something or someone that is generally popular or enjoyable for a large audience.
Crowd out: To push or force someone or something out of a space or situation, often due to being too numerous or dominant.
The madding crowd: A large, noisy, and often chaotic group of people. (From Thomas Hardy's novel Far from the Madding Crowd).
Crowd around: To gather closely around someone or something.
Crowd into/onto: To fit a large number of people or things into a small space.
Crowd funding/sourcing: Soliciting financial contributions or information from a large number of people, typically online.
Get lost in the crowd: To become unnoticed or indistinguishable within a large group.
Play to the crowd: To do or say things that will gain the approval or applause of an audience, often by sacrificing principles.
A lone wolf in the crowd: Someone who is independent or solitary, even when surrounded by others.
Vocabulary-Based Stories from SEA
Source Information
Definition of crowd from The Academic Glossary at Self Exploration Academy, a Urikville Press Publication. © All rights reserved.
