As a follow-up to our Collective Nouns post available here, let’s look at a related question: whether “majority” is singular or plural. The short answer is both.

Here’s an example:

The vast majority of baseball players in the United States are/is right-handed.

In this example, plural is correct:

The vast majority of baseball players in the United States are right-handed.

Let’s look at the rule and some relevant examples to help illustrate this.

“Majority” is a collective noun. Collective nouns can be either singular or plural depending on whether we are discussing individual members of the group or the group as a whole (as one entity).

The team has defeated many difficult opponents.

Singular is appropriate because we are discussing the team as a unit.

The team have left Yankee Stadium.

In this case, plural is correct because the team acted individually; they each leave as individuals.

Let’s look at another example using majority:

The majority of players have achieved their milestones.

This case is most definitely plural, again because the individual players don’t hit their targets as a group: it takes the active participation of players working individually.

Here’s a pair of examples that may seem confusing at first glance:

The team is attending a practice workout on Friday.

The team are preparing for that workout.

In the first example, singular is correct because they are attending as a unit.

In the second example, plural is correct because the members are working individually to prepare for the workout.

Sometimes, for clarity, it’s helpful to revise the sentence slightly:

The team members are preparing for that workout.

Let’s look at variations of the team scenario:

The team wants to achieve success.

(Here they are acting as a unit, to succeed as a unit.)

The team of players were waiting for instructions.

(Here they are acting as individuals, each waiting for instructions.)

Following my advice that sometimes a slight rewrite may be advisable, keep in mind that what is actually being said in the second example is this:

The members of the team were waiting for instructions.

Some grammarians recommend noting which article is used to determine whether to use singular or plural: “the” often precedes singular usage and “a” often precedes plural usage. Although this is often the case, our example above shows that it doesn’t always apply. I always recommend understanding the usage rather than trying to rely on a rule.

Providing a complete list of collective nouns like “team” simply isn’t possible, but collective nouns that are similar to “majority” would include examples such company, group, team, band, family, people, committee.

At Virtus, are editorial experts can provide solid advice regarding issues such as these. 

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