multitudine

Multitudine is a term meaning “the multitude” or “the many” that appears in Latin and in Romance-language contexts. The root is the Latin multitūdō, a noun for a large number or crowd. In modern Italian, the standard word for “a large group of people” is moltitudine; multitudine occurs mainly in Latin loan phrases or in stylized historical writing and may appear in Latin contexts in various cases.

As a concept, the multitude denotes a heterogeneous mass capable of collective action. In political philosophy, it is used to describe a subject distinct from the state or a centralized authority, emphasizing distributed power, autonomy, and potential for democratic or insurgent action. Historically, thinkers have used the idea to analyze how large groups can act as political agents beyond traditional sovereign structures. In contemporary theory, the term is central to the work of scholars such as Deleuze and Guattari, who framing the multitude as a transindividual force, and to Hardt and Negri, who discuss global networks and resistance within the framework of the “multitude” in works like Empire and Multitude.

Linguistic note: in English, the standard term is "multitude." The form "multitudine" is uncommon outside Latin or Italian contexts and typically appears only in quotations or discussions of the Latin root.