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horde

(hôrd)

1. A large group or crowd; a swarm: a horde of mosquitoes. See Synonyms at crowd¹.

a. A nomadic Mongol or Turkic tribe.

b. A nomadic tribe or group.

[Ultimately (via German Horde, Polish horda, and kindred words in other languages of central Europe, with initial h-, of obscure origin) from Ukrainian orda, tribe or army of Mongols and Turkic peoples (as the Golden Horde) from North-Western Turkic ordï, encampment, residence, court, from Old Turkic ordu.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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