Plethora

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈplɛθəɹə/

Definitions

1. An excessive or overabundant amount of something, often more than is needed or desired
2. An abundance of items or qualities that is often considered more than necessary or useful
3. A large quantity of various elements or options that exceeds what is typically acceptable or required

Etymology: The Greek word "plēthōra" meant "fullness" or "satiety," the feeling of having eaten your fill. It came from "plēthō," "to be full," which is also the root behind "plēthos," a crowd or multitude. Physicians then borrowed the idea for a medical condition: an excess of blood or bodily fluids, a state of being overfull. Latin took the term over as "plēthora," and English eventually adopted it from Late Latin. For centuries, then, the word described a bodily surplus rather than an abundance of things in general. A "plethora of blood" was something a doctor could diagnose and treat, usually by bloodletting. The shift to the broader sense of any large quantity, whether of ideas, options or complaints, came later, as the medical flavour faded and writers found the word's sense of overflowing fullness useful for everything else. The "-ē" ending is a common Greek noun-forming suffix, so the word is built from a verb root plus that suffix, not from a compound of two separate words.

Synonyms: abundance, excess, surplus, overabundance, profusion

Antonyms: scarcity, lack, insufficiency