legion

Meanings

Adjective

• Numerous; vast; very great in number

Noun

• The major unit or division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 infantry soldiers and 100 to 200 cavalry troops.
• A combined arms major military unit featuring cavalry, infantry, and artillery, including historical units such as the British Legion, and present-day units such as the Spanish Legion and the French Foreign Legion.
• A large military or semi-military unit trained for combat; any military force; an army, regiment; an armed, organized and assembled militia.
• A national organization or association of former servicemen, such as the American Legion.
• A large number of people; a multitude.
• A great number.
• 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.

Verb

• To form into legions.

Origin

• Attested (in Middle English, as legioun) around 1200, from Old French legion, from Latin legiō, legionem, from legō; akin to legend, lecture.
• Generalized sense of “a large number” is due to an allusive phrase in Mark 5:9, "my name is Legion: for we are many" (KJV).