Statistics

Majority

"A simple majority means "more than half." It's as opposed to a super-majority, is larger. For example, the Senate requires a simple majority to impeach a president, but a 2/3 supermajority to convict that president and remove him from office. It takes a 3/5 supermajority for a cloture motion to pass, ending debate on a bill.

A plurality is, by definition, less than a simple majority, but more than anyone else. In the UK it's called a relative majority, which may be a term worth adopting, as its meaning is more easily guessed than a plurality." [1]

---

Majority: more than half

---

sim·ple ma·jor·i·ty - noun

a majority in which the highest number of votes cast for any one candidate, issue, or item exceeds the second-highest number, while not constituting an absolute majority.

---

plu·ral·i·ty (plo͝oˈralədē/) - noun

(US) the number of votes cast for a candidate who receives more than any other but does not receive an absolute majority. "his winning plurality came from creating a reform coalition"

---

When I was first taught English I was taught British English. We used the term relative majority to refer to plurality. We would also sometimes use the term absolute majority to be clearer when referring to a majority.