There are (a) myriad (of) ways to use the word myriad

Okay, so there are two. Myriad can be used as a noun, or as an adjective. But that’s one more than I ever thought was acceptable.

Earlier this year (pre-blog and pre-Macquarie Dictionary ownership), I posted a rant on facebook about the way people were using the word ‘myriad’. To me it was only, and could only be used as, an adjective.

I was very quickly (and oh-so-politely) put in my place by a friend who told me that both were acceptable, and provided a few links to prove it.

Whoops. I hate admitting I’m wrong, but in this case, I was very clearly wrong. The good news is that there’s something almost therapeutic about turning it into a blog post lesson.

Today, I looked it up in the dictionary just to check that yes, we have adopted this usage in Australia. And yes, we have adopted this usage in Australia:

myriad noun 1. an indefinitely great number. –adjective 2. amounting to an indefinitely great number. 3. of an indefinitely great number; innumerable. 4. having innumerable phases, aspects, etc.: the myriad mind of Shakespeare. [Greek myrias a number of ten thousand]
Usage: The use of myriad as a noun as in the myriad of stars in the sky is considered incorrect by some but is increasingly frequent.