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Multiple vs Ply - What's the difference?

multiple | ply |

As an adjective multiple

is multiple.

As a noun ply is

a layer of material.

As a verb ply is

to or ply can be to ly.

multiple

English

(wikipedia multiple)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having more than one element, part, component, or function, particularly many.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Antonyms

    * (many) (l) (rare)

    Derived terms

    * Law of multiple proportion (Law of Dalton) * multiple algebra * multiple conjugation * multiple exposure * multiple fruits * multiple orgasm * multiple star

    Related terms

    * multi- * multiplier * multiplicity * multiply

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (mathematics) A number that may be divided by another number with no remainder.
  • * 14, 21 and 70 are multiples of 7
  • (finance) Price-earnings ratio.
  • One of a set of the same thing; a duplicate.
  • A single individual who has multiple personalities.
  • * 2010 , Ann M. Garvey, Ann's Multiple World of Personality: Regular No Cream, No Sugar
    • I had seen its first show when it was a freebie, but I thought it made multiples in general look silly – no one changes clothes THAT much!
  • * 2000 , Henk Driessen, ?Ton Otto, Perplexities of identification (page 115)
    • Non-abused multiples have no need of doctors, and they have carved out a foothold of their own from where they speak confidently about their utopian vision of a multiple world.

    Derived terms

    * common multiple * least common multiple

    ply

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (plies)
  • A layer of material.
  • A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up yarn or rope.
  • (colloquial) Plywood.
  • (artificial intelligence, game theory) In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn", or one move made by one of the players.
    • He proposed to build Deep Purple, a super-computer capable of 24-ply look-ahead for chess.
  • State, condition.
  • * 1749 , John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure , Penguin 1985, p. 66:
    • You may be sure, in the ply I was now taking, I had no objection to the proposal, and was rather a-tiptoe for its accomplishment.
    Derived terms
    * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , see Etymololgy 1.

    Verb

  • to .
  • * L'Estrange
    • The willow plied , and gave way to the gust.
  • to .
    • Derived terms
    * plier (agent noun) * pliers

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Verb

  • To ly.
    • He plied his trade as carpenter for forty-three years.
  • * Waller
    • Their bloody task, unwearied, still they ply .
  • To work diligently.
  • * Milton
    • Ere half these authors be read (which will soon be with plying hard and daily).
  • * Addison
    • He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter.
  • To vigorously.
    • He plied his ax with bloody results.
  • To ly.
    • ply the seven seas
    A steamer plies between certain ports.
  • To in offering.
  • * 1929 , , Chapter VII, Section vi
    • Esther began to cry. But when the fire had been lit specially to warm her chilled limbs and Adela had plied her with hot negus she began to feel rather a heroine.
    She plied him with liquor.
  • To press upon; to urge importunately.
    • to ply one with questions, with solicitations, or with drink
  • * Shakespeare
    • He plies the duke at morning and at night.
  • To employ diligently; to use steadily.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Go ply thy needle; meddle not.
  • (nautical) To work to windward; to beat.