plethora

[pleth-er-uh]

noun

1. overabundance; excess.

   His crisis brought him a plethora of advice and an almost complete lack of assistance.

2. a large quantity or wide array; a lot.

   The co-op program offers a plethora of advantages for students.

   Visitors are drawn to the main beach, where a plethora of watersports can be enjoyed.

3. Pathology Archaic.,  a morbid condition due to excess of red corpuscles in the blood or increase in the quantity of blood.

plethora

/ ˈplɛθərə, plɛˈθɒrɪk /

noun

1. superfluity or excess; overabundance

2. obsolete,  pathol a condition caused by dilation of superficial blood vessels, characterized esp by a reddish face

Other Word Forms

• plethorically adverb
• plethoric adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of plethora¹

First recorded in 1535–45; from New Latin, from Greek plēthṓra “fullness,” from plḗthein “to fill, be full”; complete ( def. ), full ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of plethora¹

C16: via Medieval Latin from Greek plēthōrē fullness, from plēthein to grow full

Example Sentences

In other words, consumers have access to a plethora of content and only watch a slice of it.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She tells BBC News she received a "plethora of DMs" from people telling her they'd unfollowed her because they could no longer relate to her content once she had a boyfriend.

Read more on BBC

I, the self-appointed queen of snacks, brought a plethora of goodies and drinks from my Sherman Oaks apartment.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

A year after the death of Ratan Tata, the Tata Group - a gigantic Indian salt-to-steel conglomerate which he steered into a global, modern, technologically advanced enterprise - finds itself facing a plethora of crises.

Read more on BBC

The department is facing a plethora of challenges, including the housing of asylum seekers in hotels.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• deluge 
• excess 
• glut 
• overabundance 
• plenty 
• profusion 
• surfeit