Definition
To have a complex and apparently paradoxical nature; to be inconsistent, especially in a way that is ultimately admirable or noble.
Origins
Coined by the American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) in his poem “Song of Myself” published in Leaves of Grass (1855): see the quotation.
In Context
- "Do I contradict myself? / Very well then … I contradict myself; / I am large … I contain multitudes."
- "Mirror in My House is both a portrait of the artist ([Seán] O'Casey himself) and a portrait of an artist (a fictional John-Johnny-Sean Casside who contains multitudes), yet it is the unrelenting single vision of a particular personality with a fixed point of view."
- "[Sergei] Diaghilev would show Europe that Russia was large and contained multitudes: multitudes of social classes and occupations, and multitudes of indigenous musical styles, not all of them "Asiatic" or peasant."
- "In taking on this new role, Boyd had learned that Les Miz's "bad guy" contains multitudes—not unlike the stars he sings about."