bountiful
1 Americanadjective
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liberal in bestowing gifts, favors, or bounties; munificent; generous.
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abundant; ample.
a bountiful supply.
noun
adjective
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plentiful; ample (esp in the phrase a bountiful supply )
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giving freely; generous
Usage
What does bountiful mean? Bountiful describes something abundant or plentiful. For example, if you have so many pens that you think you’ll never run out of them, you could say you have a bountiful supply of pens. Bountiful also means generous, especially in giving gifts or favors. For example, you could say that a new job is bountiful because it pays a lot of money or has a lot of benefits, like its own coffee bar with a barista, hammocks, and a skateboard park. Example: The city had a bountiful supply of interesting museums to visit.
Synonym Usage
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bountiful
Explanation
Bountiful means abundant or given generously. We celebrate the idea of a bountiful harvest with a Thanksgiving cornucopia overflowing with its bounty of pumpkins, apples, squashes, and cranberries. Bountiful can also mean generously given, with the idea that the original bounty of a harvest came from the gods you prayed to for rain and sun. When you received their gifts, you thanked them for their generosity. Now, bountiful giving is something you might experience with your parents or grandparents, happy just to see you smile on your birthday.
Vocabulary lists containing bountiful
Power Suffix: -ful
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her young Guernsey calf, "Empress Bountiful Crunch" has just won first prize in her class.
From BBC • Oct. 3, 2024
Voters at Millcreek Junior High School in Bountiful engaged in structured debates for more than an hour.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 6, 2024
Researchers placed the portable technology next to an existing regulatory sensor at the Bountiful Utah Division of Air Quality site from Aug. 30, 2021-Aug.
From Science Daily • Feb. 26, 2024
Bountiful discoveries of newfound worlds—and with them, perhaps, the revelation of more “loopholes”—could come relatively soon via NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is due to launch by May 2027.
From Scientific American • Oct. 5, 2023
Another gale had ripped away the rigging of die Bountiful Harvest, forcing Salla to have her taken under tow.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.