Plethoras & Myriads
By Mark Twain©
For the duration of the current crisis, Mark Twain© would like to ask challenging questions, requesting your answers. Here are 2 questions for today.
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- How are the meanings of these two words similar, how are they different?
- When would you use “plethora?” when, “myriad?”
A little time with plethoras and myriads
I guess the first thing I thought when I read this was Yay! the submission form worked. After that, I wondered what sort of creatures these plethoras and myriads could be. Are they like mermaids and naiads?
Grammatically, plethora takes an article (a plethora of styles) while myriad doesn’t need one (myriad tiny creatures).
If I had to guess, I would say that plethora refers to a diversity of things that are different, while myriad designates many things that are somehow the same.
I don’t actually know. I think I tend to use them interchangeably.
One try
For me they are similar, but handy in different circumstances, depending on the effect desired. I’m guessing, but I think of myriad as very large, and plethora as even larger.
There are a myriad of ways to write a sentence; there are a plethora of posts on the internet.