Myriad is a classical Greek name for the number 104 = 10 000. In modern English the word refers to an
unspecified large quantity.
The term myriad is a progression in the commonly used system of describing numbers using tens and hundreds. Small
numbers are named in terms of number of tens plus the remainder; for example 76 is seven tens plus six. Numbers larger than ten
tens require a new description, a hundred. Thus, 1776 is seventeen hundred and seventy six. Similarly one hundred hundred is a
myriad. A myriad myriad, or one hundred million, was left as the largest named number by the Ancient Greeks and is also the largest named number in the Bible.
A myriad is primarily a singular cardinal number; just as the 'thousand' in 'four thousand' is singular (one does not write
'four thousands people') the word myriad is used in the same way: "there are four myriad people outside". When used as a
noun, meaning 'a large number', it follows the same rules as that phrase. However, that is not the case originally in
Greek, where there is plural.
In English, the term "myriad" is most commonly used to refer to a large number of an unspecified size. In this way "myriad"
can be used as either a noun or an adjective. Thus both "there are myriad people outside" and "There is a myriad of people
outside" are correct.
Merriam-Webster notes, "Recent criticism of the use of myriad as a noun, both in the plural form myriads and in the
phrase a myriad of, seems to reflect a mistaken belief that the word was originally and is still properly only an
adjective.... however, the noun is in fact the older form, dating to the 16th century. The noun myriad has appeared in the
works of such writers as Milton (plural myriads) and Thoreau (a myriad of), and it continues to occur frequently in
reputable English. There is no reason to avoid it."[1]
Chinese, Japanese and Korean also have words for a myriad squared (100,000,000): yi4(億), oku (億), and eok
(억/億)(pronounced "awk"), respectively. A myriad cubed (10 000³) is a zhao4 (兆); cho (兆); a myriad to the
fourth power (10 0004) is a jing1 (京); kei (京). Conversely, Chinese, Japanese and Korean do not
have single words for a thousand squared, cubed, etc., unlike English and many other languages of European origin.
The English numbering system divides large numbers into groups of three digits, and so the names for such numbers follow this
division (10 000 = ten thousand). East Asian numbering divides large numbers
into groups of four; so in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, 30 000 really would be "three myriad" (3 0000 - Japanese
san-man). One million is a hundred myriad (100 x
10000 instead of 1000 x 1000); the next uniquely named number after a myriad is 億, which is myriad myriad (10000 x 10000) or a
hundred million.
Modern Greek still uses the word "myriad" by itself, but also to form the word for million. The word for million is
ekatommyrio (hundred myriad - εκατομμύριο); one thousand million is
disekatommyrio (twice hundred myriad - δισεκατομμύριο).
The largest number named in Ancient Greek was a myriad myriad and Archimedes of Syracuse used this quantity as the basis for a numeration system of large powers of ten, which
he needed to count grains of sand, see The Sand Reckoner.
There is only slight indication that "myria" has at all been used as a metric prefix for 10,000, e.g., 10 kilometres = 1 myriametre. It does not have official status as an
SI prefix.
In Sweden, one mile = 10 000 metres = one myriametre. Before Sweden went metric, one Swedish mile was 10 688 metres, so only a small change had
to be made to the old Swedish mile to make it equal to one myriametre. Even today, Swedes frequently use the Swedish mile to
refer to travel distances in everyday language. Similarly, one myriometre =
0.000 1 metre.
In Great Britain, the Ordnance Survey use the term myriad to refer to a 100km x 100km area in the British National Grid.
See also
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