# Language question: 1983 was the year when "multiple times" replaced "several times" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 27, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185 "2025-11-27T17:17:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185/1 "2025-11-27T17:17:11Z")
I just noticed a change in the English language: the use of the word “multiple”. A couple decades ago, people would say “I’ve gone to Disneyland several times” Nowadays, they say “I’ve been there multiple times”. So I checked on Google ngrams. The graph shows that in 1983, there is [a very, very sharp rise](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22+multiple+times+%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3) in the use of the phrase “multiple times” For comparison: the graph of the phrase “several times” shows a [steady decline](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22several+times%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3) in use, starting in 1985. (Also, the phrase “many times” also shows a [decline in use](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22+many+times+%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3) starting in 1972. ) So , my fellow Dopers, we have some profound issues to discuss: 1. What the hell happened in 1983? 2. In your personal conversations , which phrase do you use? (The circumstances of my discovery of this critical issue: I recently spoke with a relative about how many times we spent the holidays at grandma’s house when we were kids. We both blurted out at the same moment–He said “multiple times”, I said “several times”. ) We are both the same age (late 60’s). When and why did the vocabulary change? And has your vocabulary changed, too? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185/2 "2025-11-27T17:18:58Z")
(mods: please correct the thread title…remove theduplicate words “in the year1983”) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185/3 "2025-11-27T17:21:43Z")
Language Log has some theories: [Language Log » Multiple](https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=16552#:%5C~:text=Whatever%20multiple%20refers%20to%20in,many%2C%20several%2C%20or%20numerous) . > Logically, the secular trend towards increasing _multiple_ usage could have one or more of several causes: > > 1. Whatever _multiple_ refers to in general (call it “multiplicity”) is something that people are increasingly interested in talking and writing about; > > 2. People are becoming more academic, formal or pretentious in their speech and writing; > > 3. The academic or formal character of the word _multiple_ is gradually being bleached away, so that people tend to use it in a wider range of contexts; > > 4. The effective meaning of _multiple_ in general usage is gradually shifting, so that it takes up more and more “mouth space” from alternatives like _many, several,_ or _numerous._ > > 5. Memetic drift (i.e. fashion) is increasing the frequency of _multiple_ for no particular reason; > > 6. Multi-word terms involving _multiple_ have been invented and/or have increased in frequency. > > Number 1 (increasing interest in multiplicity) seems unlikely, and number 2 (increasing formality) is clearly false. So we’re left with number 3 (bleaching of register), number 4 (shifting connotation), and number 5 (memetic drift), which in cases like this can plausibly be seen as three different aspects of the same process; and number 6 (terminology), which is certainly true (e.g. _multiple integral_ (1841), _multiple sclerosis_ (1877), _multiple personality_ (1886), _multiple myeloma_ (1897), _multiple regression_ (1908), _multiple choice_ (1915), _multiple exposure_ (1916) _multiple intelligences_ (1983), etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185/4 "2025-11-27T17:21:47Z")
Ahhh, they’re 1983-style “Death Rays”. I don’t know about the trend, but personally, I use “multiple” when I want to emphasize the fact that it’s more than once, and “several” when it’s around 3-7 times, but sometimes higher. If all that matters is that it’s more than once, I say “multiple” when it’s small. if it’s 2-4 times, I sometimes say the exact number. Somewhere over 7 times, I say neither “multiple” nor “several” but “many.” ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185/5 "2025-11-27T17:22:02Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > (mods: please correct the thread title…) Fixed. Next time, please flag the post. We don’t read every thread and might not see it. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185/6 "2025-11-27T17:39:25Z")
There’s something weird about the way ngrams handles quote characters. The default example they give (Albert Einstein,Sherlock Holmes,Frankenstein) doesn’t use any quotes. If I remove the quotes from your tests, they show a very different pattern; _[multiple times](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=multiple+times&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3)_ does increase dramatically but doesn’t have the dip in 2013 that your graph shows, but _[several times](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=several+times&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3)_ also shows an increase, not a decrease during that same period. [Plotting them together](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=several+times%252Cmultiple+times&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3) shows both increasing, but _several_ remains much more common than _multiple_. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185/7 "2025-11-27T17:52:48Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > There’s something weird about the way ngrams handles quote characters yeah, it’s weird that your results are different than mine. When I first tried “multiple times”, ngrams corrected me and automatically changed it to " multiple times " (adding spaces between the " and the words). Ngrams said this was done “in order to match how we processed the books”. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question-1983-was-the-year-when-multiple-times-replaced-several-times/1025185/8 "2025-11-28T13:53:53Z")
I’d argue they have different meanings. Several times means more than twice, multiple times means more than once.