horde

noun \ ˈhȯrd \

Updated on: 20 Apr 2018

Definition of horde

1 a : a political subdivision of central Asian nomads

b : a people or tribe of nomadic life

2 : a large unorganized group of individuals : a teeming crowd or throng

hordes of peasants

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Examples of horde in a Sentence

A horde of tourists entered the museum.
Hordes of reporters were shouting questions.

Recent Examples of horde from the Web

Odum doesn't think that if Montpelier allowed noncitizens to vote that a horde of people from nearby Canada would flood the city to vote in its local elections.

— doug criss, CNN, "Vermont's capital could allow noncitizens to vote in local elections - an idea as old as America itself," 10 Apr. 2018
And while a healthy dose of Anglophilia is just fine, something happened on the Internet on Thursday that finally broke the camel's back, unleashing a horde of angry social media users.

— melissa minton, Allure, "The Internet Is Not Here for This Article on Meghan Markle's "Single Gray Hair"," 5 Apr. 2018
Not everyone in Atlanta is onboard with the possibility of a horde of Amazonians arriving in town.

— elizabeth weise, USA TODAY, "Amazon's second headquarters search hits crunch time; one group warns 'it's a race to the bottom'," 2 Apr. 2018
On Thursday, Michigan's locker room was plenty cramped with the usual horde of reporters that come out for Final Four access.

— nick baumgardner, Detroit Free Press, "Final Four: Michigan basketball knows it's villain vs. Cinderella Loyola," 29 Mar. 2018
Painted as a faceless and malevolent horde, many times by the same countries and people responsible for their displacement.

— zito madu, GQ, "The Unflinching Humanity of Ai Weiwei's Human Flow," 27 Mar. 2018
The sky rarely musters a cloud, giving a horde of giant telescopes an unblemished view of the stars at night.

— ben guarino, BostonGlobe.com, "This tiny skeleton found in Chile might look like an alien’s, but genetics studies are uncovering the tragic, true story," 23 Mar. 2018
The volcanic breach that once brought forth a horde of Kaiju from the ocean floor has been permanently sealed, and most of the Jaegers have been deactivated and stripped down for parts by black-market thieves.

— justin chang, latimes.com, "'Pacific Rim Uprising' is a big, noisy, cheerfully dumb monsters-and-robots sequel," 22 Mar. 2018
The man goes to great lengths to reclaim his favorite weapon from Rick and then uses it to deftly break his way through a flaming zombie horde.

— nick statt, The Verge, "The Walking Dead feels fresh, original, and truly open-ended for the first time in years," 19 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'horde.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of horde

Middle French, German, & Polish; Middle French & German, from Polish horda, from Ukrainian dialect gorda, alteration of Ukrainian orda, from Old Russian, from Turkic orda, ordu khan's residence

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1555

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year