profusion
Americannoun
-
profusions
plural
-
abundance; abundant quantity.
- Synonyms:
- bounty, copiousness
- Antonyms:
- scarcity
-
a great quantity or amount (often followed byof ).
-
lavish spending; extravagance.
- Synonyms:
- waste, excess, profligacy, prodigality
Synonym Usage
See plenty.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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!"
Vocabulary lists containing profusion
The Great Gatsby
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"The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Dracula
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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.
See Examples For:
Plath and Swift, Nelson argues, have been judged by “the same script that has greeted female profusion, personalism, and ambition literally for millennia.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025
As the profusion of large language models and other tools has picked up, demand for inference computing has skyrocketed, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said in a joint interview with Su.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2025
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
In the evening Hattie had me help her prepare for a ball, including plucking out the hairs that grew in profusion above her upper lip.
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
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
On a sultry afternoon recently, Regina Myer, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, walked past profusions of swamp milkweed, rose mallows and cardinal flowers.
From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2015
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
The citizens decked the city called after the elephant with garlands of flowers in profusions, with beautiful pennons and standards of diverse kinds.
From The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 Books 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
