legion

Meanings

1. Numerous; vast; very great in number.

1. The major unit or division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 infantry soldiers and 100 to 200 cavalry troops.
2. 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.
3. A large military or semi-military unit trained for combat; any military force; an army, regiment; an armed, organized and assembled militia.
4. A national organization or association of former servicemen, such as the American Legion.
5. A large number of people; a multitude.
6. A great number.
7. 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.

1. To form into legions.

1. Ellipsis of American Legion.

Etymology

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