1

According to Collins, the meaning of the term "diverse" is "If a group or range of things is diverse, it is made up of a wide variety of things" so it seems it can be used to explain multiple things.

But I sometimes can see the use of the word like "a diverse sample" to show singular thing. Why the term "diverse" can be used in singular form?

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    The term diverse is an adjective. Adjectives can qualify either singular or plural nouns. For example red: There is a red apple on the table, or there are red apples on the table.
    – Lucian Sava
    Oct 3, 2019 at 4:16

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
0

According to Collins, the meaning of the term "diverse" is "If a group or range of things is diverse, it is made up of a wide variety of things" so it seems it can be used to explain multiple things.

"group", "range", and "variety" are all singular nouns. They refer to things that have lots of members, but grammatically they are singular. Similarly, "sample" is grammatically singular, but it refers to something that includes several different elements. Diversity is a property of a set, not the members of the set. It's a collective property that refers to the relationship between the elements.

Improve this answer
0

Diverse is an adjective that can be used to talk about both singular and plural nouns.

Examples of "diverse" with singular nouns:

We have a diverse selection of products for sale.
Your taste in art is quite diverse

Examples of "diverse" with plural nouns:

The students in this school are very diverse.
Your paintings are really diverse.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .