plethora
Americannoun
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overabundance; excess.
His crisis brought him a plethora of advice and an almost complete lack of assistance.
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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.
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Pathology Archaic. a morbid condition due to excess of red corpuscles in the blood or increase in the quantity of blood.
noun
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superfluity or excess; overabundance
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obsolete pathol a condition caused by dilation of superficial blood vessels, characterized esp by a reddish face
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of plethora
First recorded in 1535–45; from New Latin, from Greek plēthṓra “fullness,” from plḗthein “to fill, be full”; see also complete ( def. ), full 1
Explanation
Plethora means an abundance or excess of something. If you have 15 different people who want to take you on a date, you have a plethora of romantic possibilities. Plethora comes from the Greek for "fullness." Although it was originally used only in old-fashioned medicine to describe the condition of having too much blood, we use it to talk about any excessive supply. If you run a theater and all the seats are taken, that's a full house. But if the seats are full and people are standing in the aisles, you have a plethora of patrons. The stress is on the first syllable: PLETH-uh-ruh.
Vocabulary lists containing plethora
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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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.
Still, it only brushes the surface of an exhibition that seamlessly draws upon a plethora of works crafted across U.S. history.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
Originally listed for $32 million in July 2023, the 13,000-square-foot home with a plethora of luxurious amenities has bounced on and off the market ever since, each time with a significant price reduction.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 3, 2026
The plethora of overtaking manoeuvres this year has often been caused by the two cars involved being in different states of energy deployment.
From BBC • Jun. 3, 2026
Even the once derided, now celebrated Brutalist Barbican included a plethora of glass.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026
A mile below town he stopped at a one-car block manned by the two Chamisaville state personnel, Loren McKay and Buddy Namath, who added nothing to the plethora of noninformation he already had.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
