Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NU'MER-OUS, a. [L. numerosus.]

1. Being many, or consisting of a great number of individuals; as, a numerous army; a numerous body; a numerous people.
2. Consisting of poetic numbers; melodious; musical. In prose, a style becomes numerous by the alternate disposition or intermixture of long and short syllables, or of long and short words; or by a judicious selection and disposition of smooth flowing words, and by closing the periods with important or well sounding words. Encyc.