Meaning of contain multitudes | Babel Free

Definitions

To have a complex and apparently paradoxical nature; to be inconsistent, especially in a way that is ultimately admirable or noble.

idiomatic, intransitive

Examples

“Do I contradict myself? / Very well then … I contradict myself; / I am large … I contain multitudes.”

“Mirror in My House is both a portrait of the artist ([Seán] O'Casey himself) and a portrait of an artist (a fictional John-Johnny-Sean Casside who contains multitudes), yet it is the unrelenting single vision of a particular personality with a fixed point of view.”

“[Sergei] Diaghilev would show Europe that Russia was large and contained multitudes: multitudes of social classes and occupations, and multitudes of indigenous musical styles, not all of them "Asiatic" or peasant.”

“In taking on this new role, Boyd had learned that Les Miz's "bad guy" contains multitudes—not unlike the stars he sings about.”

CEFR level