horde

noun

ˈhȯrd 

1

a

: a political subdivision of central Asian nomads

b

: a people or tribe of nomadic life

2

: a large unorganized group of individuals : a teeming crowd or throng

hordes of peasants

Synonyms

• army
• bike [chiefly Scottish]
• cram
• crowd
• crush
• drove
• flock
• herd
• host
• legion
• mass
• mob
• multitude
• press
• rout
• scrum
• swarm
• throng

Choose the Right Synonym for horde

crowd, throng, horde, crush, mob mean an assembled multitude.

crowd implies a close gathering and pressing together.

a crowd gathered

throng and horde suggest movement and pushing.

a throng of reporters

a horde of shoppers

crush emphasizes the compactness of the group, the difficulty of individual movement, and the attendant discomfort.

a crush of fans

mob implies a disorderly crowd with the potential for violence.

an angry mob

Examples of horde in a Sentence

A horde of tourists entered the museum.

Hordes of reporters were shouting questions.

Recent Examples on the Web

This isn't surprising, as the PCMark test doesn't effectively utilize the hordes of CPU cores available in the ThinkStation across its two Xeons. —PCMAG, 17 Feb. 2025

Madigan departed the courthouse just before noon Wednesday, holding hands with two of his daughters and walking out into the falling snow toward his nearby attorneys’ offices, followed by a horde of news cameras. —Ray Long, Chicago Tribune, 12 Feb. 2025

Minutes before stepping into a horde of media in front of him, Freddie Freeman was signing a fan’s leg — which had a tattoo depicting Freeman, bat held high, after his walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series against the New York Yankees. —Fabian Ardaya, The Athletic, 2 Feb. 2025

Lil Wayne is decades into his music career and still has a horde of people anticipating his new music. —Armon Sadler, VIBE.com, 22 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle French, German, & Polish; Middle French & German, from Polish horda, from Ukrainian dialect gorda, alteration of Ukrainian orda, from Old Russian, from Turkic orda, ordu khan's residence

First Known Use

1555, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

horde

noun

ˈhō(ə)rd 

ˈhȯ(ə)rd

1

: a wandering people or tribe

2

: a great multitude : throng, swarm

hordes of tourists