Folla
NOUN [feminine]
Meaning and English translation 🔖
1. Crowd, Gathering
🇬🇧 Large number of people gathered in one place.
🇮🇹 Grande quantità di persone riunite in un luogo.
2. Multitude (figurative)
🇬🇧 Large amount of things or thoughts gathered together.
🇮🇹 Grande quantità di cose o pensieri ammassati.
Example sentences 💬
C'era una folla immensa al concerto di Vasco Rossi*.
There was a huge crowd at Vasco Rossi's concert.
*If you don’t know who he is, there’s an amazing documentary on Netflix: Vasco Rossi, living it.
Se non sai chi è, c’è un documentario bellissimo su Netflix: Vasco Rossi, il supervissuto.
Ogni giorno, una folla di turisti visita il Colosseo.
Every day, crowds of tourists visit the Colosseum.
Non riesco a concentrarmi, ho una folla di pensieri in testa.
I can't concentrate, I have a crowd of thoughts in my head.
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Idioms with folla 🇮🇹
Folla oceanica
→ Massive crowd
C'era una folla oceanica alla manifestazione per il clima.
There was a massive crowd at the climate protest.
Farsi largo tra la folla
→ To make one's way through the crowd
Mi sono fatto largo tra la folla per raggiungere il palco.
I made my way through the crowd to reach the stage.
Mescolarsi alla folla
→ To blend in with the crowd
Si è mescolato alla folla per non farsi riconoscere.
He blended in with the crowd to avoid being recognized.
Caricare la folla
→ To charge into the crowd
La polizia ha caricato la folla di manifestanti.
The police charged into the crowd of protesters.
Trascinare le folle
→ To draw/move crowds
Quel politico sa davvero come trascinare le folle.
That politician really knows how to move crowds.
Bagno di folla
→ Surrounded by fans (literal: crowd bath)
Bagno di folla per il Papa domenica.
The Pope was surrounded by fans on Sunday.
NB: Expression commonly used in news headlines, not common elsewhere
Where does the word folla come from? 🔎
Folla comes from the verb follare, meaning “to press or compress”. The term dates back to the 14th century.