Etymology

• Generalized sense of “a large number” is due to (inaccurate) translations of allusive phrase in Mark 5:9

  And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

Adjective

1. Numerous; vast; very great in number; multitudinous.

   Russia's labor and capital resources are woefully inadequate to overcome the state's needs and vulnerabilities, which are legion.

Noun

1. The major unit or division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 infantry soldiers and 100 to 200 cavalry troops.
2. A large military or semimilitary unit trained for combat; any military force; an army, regiment; an armed, organized and assembled militia.
3. (often Legion or the Legion) A national organization or association of former servicemen, such as the American Legion, founded in 1919.
4. A large number of people; a multitude.
5. (often plural) A great number.

   Where one sin has entered, legions will force their way through the same breach. — John Rogers (1679-1729) Google Books

6. 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.

Synonyms

Quotations

• 1606, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV Scene iii

  MACDUFF. Not in the legions / Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd / In evils to top Macbeth.

• 1611, Bible, King James Version

  Mark 5:9

  And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

  Matthew 26:53

  Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?

• 1708, John Philips, Cyder, Book II, Google Books

  Now we exult, by mighty ANNA's Care / Secure at home, while She to foreign Realms / Sends forth her dreadful Legions, and restrains / The Rage of Kings

• 1745, Edward Young, Night Thoughts, Google Books

  What can preserve my life, or what destroy ? / An angel's arm can't snatch me from the grave; / Legions of angels can't confine me there.

• 1821, Lord Byron, Sardanapalus, Act IV Scene i, Books

  SAR. I fear it not; but I have felt—have seen— / A legion of the dead.