Myriad
- This article is about the number. For the typeface, see Myriad (typeface)
The myriad is a natural progression in the commonly used system of naming numbers using tens and hundreds, which can be seen as follows. One names small numbers in terms of number of tens plus the rest, e.g., 76 is seventy six or seven tens plus six. This system works until ten tens, which requires a new name, a hundred. One similarly names numbers less than 10,000 by counting the number of hundreds plus the rest, e.g., 1776 is seventeen hundred and seventy six. This system works until one hundred hundred, which requires a new name, a myriad. Similarly, the system using myriads works up to a myriad myriad, or one hundred million, which was left as the largest named number by Ancient Greeks and is also the largest named number in the Bible.
In English, the word can either refer to 10 000 or to an unspecified large quantity. When unspecified, myriad is used as an adjective. It is often incorrectly used as a noun.
For example:
Incorrect Usage: There are a myriad of people outside.
Correct Usage: There is a myriad of people outside.
Correct Usage: There are myriad people outside.
Another point of confusion is whether the word 'myriad' should be pluralized. In analogy with common English usage such as: 'three hundred', 'four thousand', 'five million', as opposed to the clearly incorrect: 'three hundreds', 'four thousands', 'five millions', the principle is clearly not to pluralize 'myriad'. In particular, one has a myriad myriad, the largest number named in the Bible. Note that this rule does not apply to ten, e.g., seventy is 'seven tens' and not 'seven ten,' because multiples of ten have their own special names, twenty, thirty, etc.
There are also words in other languages with the same classic meaning as "myriad":
- Hebrew: revava
- Chinese: wan4 Mandarin and maan6 Cantonese (萬/万)
- Japanese:man (万/萬)
- Korean: man (万/만/萬)
The English numbering system divides large numbers into groups of three digits, and so the names for such numbers follow this division (10 000 = ten thousand). Asian numbering divides large numbers into groups of four; so in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, 30 000 really would be "three myriad" (3 0000 - Japanese san-man). One million is a hundred myriad (100 x 10000 instead of 1000 x 1000); the next uniquely named number after a myriad is 億, which is myriad myriad (10000 x 10000) or a hundred million.
Modern Greek still uses the myriad, but also uses the million. One million is ekatommyrio (εκατομμύριο); one thousand million is not trismyrio but disekatommyrio (δισεκατομμύριο).
The largest number named in Ancient Greek was a myriad myriad and Archimedes of Syracuse used this quantity as the basis for a numeration system of large powers of ten, which he needed to count grains of sand, see The Sand Reckoner.
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