profusion

American  

[pruh-fyoo-zhuhn] / prəˈfju ʒən /

noun

profusions plural

1. abundance; abundant quantity.

   Synonyms:

   bounty, copiousness

   Antonyms:

   scarcity

2. a great quantity or amount (often followed byof ).

3. lavish spending; extravagance.

   Synonyms:

   waste, excess, profligacy, prodigality

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Synonym Usage

See plenty.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• profusions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of profusion

First recorded in 1535–45; rom Latin profūsiōn- (stem of profūsiō ) “a pouring out, extravagance,” originally, “libation”; see profuse, fusion

Explanation

If there's an abundance of something, you can say that there's a profusion of it. Hilarious and bizarre YouTube videos certainly exist in profusion. The noun profusion comes from a Latin word profusionem, meaning "a pouring out." So you can think of profusion as an outpouring of something — an overflow or cornucopia of it. An area known for wine making should have a profusion of grapes growing along the hillsides. And an awesome performance should garner a profusion of compliments and shouts of "encore!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

profusion profusions

Our own era is one of disembodied images, of videos maybe not even made by humans, floating around on a confused profusion of platforms.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

He certainly is not advocating violent demonstrations but even a profusion of peaceful protests elsewhere would still require an increase in public-order policing.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2025

There’s also evidence that the profusion of bodies and nightmarish scenes that characterize Mitchell’s later work started to creep in before he went to Vietnam.

From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2025

Of course, there was a profusion of great minds in California’s fertile Santa Clara Valley, innovators and visionaries blessed with a superhuman capacity to peer around corners and deep into the future.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2025

Instead of producing beams with high energies but a low current like the cyclotron’s—that is, protons that were speedy but few in number—his goal was to produce protons with moderate energies but in great profusion.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

The former president had chosen Kehinde Wiley to paint his image, and Wiley responded with his trademark mix of formal portraiture and baroque profusions of decoration.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 7, 2022

Grande’s bravura vocal profusions and naughty wit and her collaborators’ top-shelf arrangements are undeniable.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2020

But, instead of planes of all sizes and descriptions circling at every altitude, there are wild profusions of different species of fish.

From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2012

The event had its precedents, most obviously the marathon concerts that Bang on a Can has presented for more than two decades, which have offered similar artistic profusions and aesthetic collisions.

From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2011

There are the most exuberant profusions of Thy grace, and the sempiternal efflux of Thy glory.

From "Co. Aytch" Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment or, A Side Show of the Big Show by Watkins, Sam R.

Related Words

• glut
• outpouring