Make Your Point > Archived Issues > MULTUM IN PARVO
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pronounce
MULTUM IN PARVO:
Say it "MULL tum in PAR vo."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Inside our term multum in parvo, we can easily spot that multum means "much, or many." Less easily recognized is parvo, meaning "small, or a little."
Multum in parvo: a lot in a little.
It might be that this parvo comes from a root, pau, meaning "few, or little." If that's true, then our term is cousins with the word pau___y, meaning "a shortage: an amount of something that's too small." Can you recall that one?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The phrase "multum in parvo" is Latin for "much in a little."
A multum in parvo is something that packs a lot of great stuff into a little bit of space or time.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Usually a noun, both the countable kind ("It's a multum in parvo") and the uncountable kind ("It provides multum in parvo").
Other forms:
We can throw in some hyphens and use it like an adjective: "It's quite multum-in-parvo."
And, we can use it as a standalone phrase: "Well, sure it's tiny, but it's wonderful. Multum in parvo."
how to use it:
Careful with this one! It's fancy, foreign, scholarly, sophisticated, rare enough to need the italics, and potentially confusing to your listeners if they haven't heard it before.
And they probably haven't! So, let your context make the meaning clear.
You might refer to a certain article, book, website, or app as a multum in parvo.
Or, you might refer to a certain device, gadget, appliance, room, home, museum, neighborhood, or city as a multum in parvo.
Or, you might get more abstract and refer to a certain word, phrase, title, song, album, poem, story, novel, TV episode, film, work of art, YouTube channel, lecture, or college course as a multum in parvo.
examples:
"A mere 18 miles at its longest point, [Rutland] is England’s smallest county. Our motto is multum in parvo, meaning much in little."
— Helen Walmsley-Johnson The Guardian, 18 September 2019
"A gentleman stepped out and looked around...he had a glance of that practised sort which can measure people, weigh them, repress them, encourage them to sprout and blossom as a March sun encourages crocuses, ask them questions, give them answers--in short, a glance that could do as many things as an American cooking-stove or a multum-in-parvo pocket-knife."
— Thomas Hardy, The Hand of Ethelberta, 1877
has this page helped you understand "multum in parvo"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "multum in parvo" without saying "a lot in a little" or "something short but jam-packed."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "_____ is a multum in parvo: (lots of things) all in (a small amount of space)."
Example: "In Inspector Gadget, Penny's computer-book always fascinated me. It was a multum in parvo: a reference, a camera, a laser, and a map all in a single book that fit in her lap."
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is "Faces & Feelings."
If the word you're studying were a facial expression, what would it look like? Maybe one of the seven universal facial expressions, the ones identified by the psychologist Paul Ekman.
In each issue, take a handful of words and assign each to an emotion it inspires. I'll list my answers at the bottom of each issue. Yours might be different from mine, which is okay--words, and emotions, are complex and personal! The goal here is just to interact with our words, to tie them more securely into memory by connecting them to emotion and to the face.
Try this set today. Match each face on the left to a term on the right:
caliginous
capitulate
cheeseparing
choleric
chortle
chutzpah
coerce
review this word:
A. THE WHOLE SHEBANG.
B. A WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING.
C. THE WHOLE WORLD IN ONE'S HANDS.
2. Multum in parvo is the motto of the _____, a breed that's _____.
A. Yorkie .. dainty and playful
B. pug .. compact but muscular
C. Great Dane .. enormous but graceful
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Inside our term multum in parvo, we can easily spot that multum means "much, or many." Less easily recognized is parvo, meaning "small, or a little."
The phrase "multum in parvo" is Latin for "much in a little."
Part of speech:
Careful with this one! It's fancy, foreign, scholarly, sophisticated, rare enough to need the italics, and potentially confusing to your listeners if they haven't heard it before.
"A mere 18 miles at its longest point, [Rutland] is England’s smallest county. Our motto is multum in parvo, meaning much in little."
Explain the meaning of "multum in parvo" without saying "a lot in a little" or "something short but jam-packed."
Fill in the blanks: "_____ is a multum in parvo: (lots of things) all in (a small amount of space)."
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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