Is "vast majority" something to avoid?
I've seen a few folks in various situations complain about the phrase "vast majority". The only online reference I can find for such dissent is (unfortunately?) the urban dictionary.
I grant that the phrase is not particularly eloquent. But it is idiomatic and I use it myself quite frequently in technical documents to represent a figure over 90% but where I don't want to break the flow of text to present the actual value.
So my question(s):
- Is the idiom "vast majority" something to avoid? Does it leave a bad impression?
- What are (better) alternatives?
Solution 1:
I think "vast majority" is perfectly acceptable. Go for it.
I suppose I am being quite idiosyncratic, but when I use an adjective in front of "majority", I use these rankings, especially when thinking about elections:
- Vast majority - means almost all or something like 90% or more, but less than unanimous.
- Overwhelming majority - means well beyond any hope of finding enough who are swayable to take the opposite case or something like 75% or more
- Large majority - means an unquestionable number such that there's no point in demanding a recount or something like 60%
- Small majority - means a comfortable margin, but not enough to take for granted or something like 53%
- Bare majority - means you just barely cracked 50.1% and if this were an election and your opponent demanded a recount, you are probably toast, or 50.1% or more
Solution 2:
It may not convey >90% to all readers — you have to be quite careful with this sort of usage. However, if the document uses vast majority in a sense that makes it a subset of most, then I think you can get away with it. It’s certainly a useful phrase, but there's always almost all or all but a few.