#unrelated but wow I can't believe 2017 was seven years ago

[funnier-as-a-system]

Is "multiplicity/multiple" as a term still in use? We latched onto it when we were a newly tangled mess having realized there's more than one of us in here, but at some point it phased out of our vocab in favor of plurality, which rolls off the tongue and mind far better We know we coulda pestered a different plural blog about it but we landed here first so y'all get to deal with it

These words are still in use, but I don't see them used as often as plurality/plural. Over time, these have become the more common terms, likely in part because they are less associated with medical frameworks or diagnoses compared to multiplicity/multiple (here's a text from 1998 that references this). However, "multiple" persists in two main contexts:

Medical contexts, which often use the term to refer to all systems (multiplicity) or the headmates of systems (multiple). Here's an example from 2017 that uses the term "multiplicity".

Community contexts, as a term for a specific kind of system with high degrees of separation between headmates. Often contrasted with median or mid-continuum systems, which have lower degrees of separation.

The usage of the term varies depending on the context and definition being used. Interestingly enough, although "multiple" is still used here and there within the community – we ourselves occasionally describe ourselves as a hybrid system of multiple, median, and mediple headmates – I see "multiplicity" used much less often, and mainly in medical contexts (or the Multiplicity/Plurality tag on AO3, lol). But, yes, they are still in use – just less so than other terms. I believe the tag "actuallymultiple" is decently active, if you wish to go looking for systems who use the term.