luxuriant

American  

[luhg-zhoor-ee-uhnt, luhk-shoor-] / lʌgˈʒʊər i ənt, lʌkˈʃʊər- /

adjective

1. abundant or lush in growth, as vegetation.

   Synonyms:

   teeming

2. producing abundantly, as soil; fertile; fruitful; productive.

   to settle in luxuriant country.

   Synonyms:

   prolific, fruitful

3. richly abundant, profuse, or superabundant.

   Synonyms:

   copious

4. florid, as imagery or ornamentation; lacking in restraint.

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luxuriant British  

/ lʌɡˈzjʊərɪənt /

adjective

1. rich and abundant; lush

2. very elaborate or ornate

3. extremely productive or fertile

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Other Word Forms

• luxuriance noun
• luxuriantly adverb
• overluxuriant adjective
• overluxuriantly adverb
• unluxuriant adjective
• unluxuriantly adverb

Etymology

Origin of luxuriant

1530–40; < Latin luxuriant- (stem of luxuriāns ), present participle of luxuriāre to be rank or immoderate. See luxury, -ant

Explanation

You can use the adjective luxuriant to describe something really luxurious or full and lush. If you walk through a dense forest after it rains, it's really luxuriant with green plants overgrowing the paths. Natural, growing things are luxuriant when they're fertile and full of life. People and places that show a fullness of life and wealth are also luxuriant. If you enter a room full of deep, plush couches and expensive decorations you're in a luxuriant space. And anything really enjoyable to the senses — whether costly or not — can be luxuriant, like a really rich and creamy piece of warm vanilla cake with a large hot chocolate: that's luxuriant.

Example Sentences

Deploying botanical damage control, drawings were overlaid with the outlines of luxuriant trees.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

In place of velvet and luxuriant lushness, there was fixating intensity and raw power.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 9, 2024

In Sinaloa, Mexico, where luxuriant corn fields carpet the plains between the Sierra Madre mountains and the Gulf of California, short corn is already having an impact.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 25, 2023

The 2003 version of the mall is a fantasyland beckoning shoppers with luxuriant versions of necessities and frivolous impulse purchases.

From Salon • Feb. 27, 2023

What happens to the corn plants and the luxuriant branching vines when the grain is harvested, the grapes gathered, and the black frost sets in, killing the fresh green life of the fields?

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

Related Words

• lush
• opulent
• sumptuous