hundratals

Hundratals is a Swedish quantitative noun meaning “hundreds,” used to indicate a large, approximate number of people or things. The form is built from hundra (“hundred”) and the suffix -tals, which creates a collective quantity expression.

Usage and meaning:

The word is used before a plural noun to express that the amount is in the hundreds without giving a precise figure. It is common in journalism, public discourse, and everyday speech when an exact count is unnecessary or unknown. It conveys a sense of scale without committing to a specific number, similar in function to phrases like “hundreds of people” in English.

Examples:

Hundratals människor deltog i demonstrationen. (Hundreds of people participated in the demonstration.)

Företaget fick hundratals ansökningar. (The company received hundreds of applications.)

Relation to other numeric forms:

Hundratals differs from precise counts and from terms that denote larger totals, such as tusentals (“thousands”). Like tusentals and other -tals formations, hundratals serves as a non-specific quantifier that estimates order of magnitude rather than exact numbers.

Etymology and usage notes:

The word combines hundra with the pluralizing quantity form -tals, a productive pattern in Swedish for forming approximate counts. In translation, hundratals is typically rendered as “hundreds of” in English. It is generally used with non-count nouns or pluralized nouns and appears across various registers, from media to casual conversation.