plethora

English

WOTD - 26 April 2006    

Etymology

Late Latin plethora (earlier pletura), from Ancient Greek πληθώρη (plēthōrē, “fullness”), from πλήθω (plēthō, “I fill”).

Pronunciation

• (RP) enPR: plĕʹthərə, plĭthôʹrə, IPA: /ˈplɛθəɹə/, /plɪˈθɔɹə/, SAMPA: /"plET@r\@/, /plI"TO@r\@/

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Noun

plethora (plural plethoras)

1. (usually followed by of) An excessive amount or number; an abundance.

   The menu offers a plethora of cuisines from around the world.

2. (medicine, archaic) An excess of red blood cells or bodily humours.

Quotations

• 1849, Herman Melville, Redburn. His First Voyage

  I pushed my seat right up before the most insolent gazer, a short fat man, with a plethora of cravat round his neck, and fixing my gaze on his, gave him more gazes than he sent.

• 1927, H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature (The Aftermath of Gothic Fiction)

  Meanwhile other hands had not been idle, so that above the dreary plethora of trash like Marquis von Grosse's Horrid Mysteries..., there arose many memorable weird works both in English and German.

Synonyms

• (excess, abundance): glut, myriad, surfeit, superfluity, slew

Related terms

• plethoric

Translations

excess, abundance

Chinese: Mandarin: 過多 (cmn), 过多 (cmn) (guòduō), 過剩 (cmn), 过剩 (cmn) (guòshèng), 過量 (cmn), 过量 (cmn) (guòliàng) Czech: spousta (cs) Dutch: overmaat (of: van) Finnish: yletön määrä French: pléthore f. (of: de) German: Fülle (de) f., Übermaß (de) n.

Italian: pletora (of: di) Latin: plethora (la) Norwegian: Bokmål: overflod (no) m. Nynorsk: overflod (nn) Portuguese: pletora (pt) f. Spanish: plétora (of: de)

See also

• myriad

References

• “plethora” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]
    Pronounced: (ˈplɛθərə, plɪˈθɔərə).

Anagrams

• tropheal

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πληθώρη (plēthōrē) "fullness", from πλήθω (plēthō) "I fill".

Noun

plēthōra (genitive plēthōrae); f, first declension

1. (later Latin): plethora

Synonyms

• plētūra