资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Multiple \Mul"ti*ple\, a. [Cf. F. multiple, and E. quadruple,
   and multiply.]
   Containing more than once, or more than one; consisting of
   more than one; manifold; repeated many times; having several,
   or many, parts.

   {Law of multiple proportion} (Chem.), the generalization that
      when the same elements unite in more than one proportion,
      forming two or more different compounds, the higher
      proportions of the elements in such compounds are simple
      multiplies of the lowest proportion, or the proportions
      are connected by some simple common factor; thus, iron and
      oxygen unite in the proportions {FeO}, {Fe2O3}, {Fe3O4},
      in which compounds, considering the oxygen, 3 and 4 are
      simple multiplies of 1. Called also the {Law of Dalton},
      from its discoverer.

   {Multiple algebra}, a branch of advanced mathematics that
      treats of operations upon units compounded of two or more
      unlike units.

   {Multiple conjugation} (Biol.), a coalescence of many cells
      (as where an indefinite number of am[oe]boid cells flow
      together into a single mass) from which conjugation proper
      and even fertilization may have been evolved.

   {Multiple fruits}. (Bot.) See {Collective fruit}, under
      {Collective}.

   {Multiple star} (Astron.), several stars in close proximity,
      which appear to form a single system.