Abound

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /əˈbaʊnd/

Definitions

1. to exist in large numbers or amounts; to be plentiful or prevalent
2. To be present in great quantity or profusion within an area or context
3. To occur or appear in overwhelming or rich supply, often to the point of excess

Etymology: The verb "abound" is built from a picture of water. Its Latin ancestor, "abundare", meant "overflow", and it combined "ab" ("from, down from") with "undare", to surge or rise in waves, which itself came from "unda", "wave". So the original sense was literally a flood spilling over its banks, and the idea of plentiful supply came only later, once the overflow was understood as abundance. The word reached English through Old French "abonder" and "abunder", and it was in use in Middle English by the 1320s, when it appeared in the form "abounden" or "abounde". Its early English uses carried the sense of overflowing or having more than enough, much as the Latin did.

Synonyms: overflow, thrive

Antonyms: lack, dwindle