profound
Americanadjective
-
penetrating or entering deeply into subjects of thought or knowledge; having deep insight or understanding.
a profound thinker.
- Antonyms:
- superficial, shallow
-
originating in or penetrating to the depths of one's being: profound grief.
-
being or going far beneath what is superficial, external, or obvious.
profound insight.
-
of deep meaning; of great and broadly inclusive significance.
a profound book.
-
pervasive or intense; thorough; complete.
a profound silence.
-
extending, situated, or originating far down, or far beneath the surface.
the profound depths of the ocean.
-
bending or passing far downward; low.
a profound bow.
adjective
-
penetrating deeply into subjects or ideas
a profound mind
-
showing or requiring great knowledge or understanding
a profound treatise
-
situated at or extending to a great depth
-
reaching to or stemming from the depths of one's nature
profound regret
-
intense or absolute
profound silence
-
thoroughgoing; extensive
profound changes
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of profound
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin profundus “deep, vast,” equivalent to pro- pro- 1 + fundus “bottom” ( see found 1)
Explanation
When you need a word that's deeper than "deep," consider profound. A philosopher is likely to make many profound pronouncements. Profundus literally means "deep" in Latin, and profound had the same meaning when it entered English in the 14th century. But even then, it also meant "figuratively deep" — that is, very great or intense: "The new laws have had a profound impact." Of people, it means "very knowledgeable or insightful," but sometimes when a person tries to sound profound, they're really just giving you superficial knowledge dressed up with big words.
Vocabulary lists containing profound
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 1
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"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
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List 4
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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:
If muonium responds to gravity differently from ordinary matter, the implications could be profound.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
While almost all of the words here scan well line by line, they don’t often build into something profound, and they never seem, from the outside, to be particularly personal to the guy singing them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Some influential voices believe the impact of their models on society will be so profound that it will fundamentally affect the ability of governments to raise taxes, especially on work.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
It goes without saying that the ripple effects this will have on shipping and agriculture, and thus food prices, will be profound.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
It is these new arguments which made possible a profound shift in the culture of both scientists and theologians in the years after 1692.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
It insists that art is not propaganda, and Ukrainians need something else from their museums, something profounder, than a restatement of what they already know.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2022
It also results in the profounder album of the two.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 4, 2018
It isn't elitist to think that Four Quartets is chewier, profounder and more artful than If or The Song of Hiawatha: it is simply common sense.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 10, 2011
Or, as Frank notes while dealing with a particularly difficult couple in Independence Day, “a profounder text runs beneath all realty decisions.”
From Newsweek
Once it had been beautiful; once, long ago, the sight of it, the recollection of it, had moved him with an emotion profounder, perhaps, than any he had felt before or since.
From Mortal Coils by Aldous Huxley
The cameraphone is enacting the profoundest change to our experience of art in a century — and yet we still talk about photography with language as old as the Kodak Colorsnap.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2019
David Bowman would turn out to one of the most isolated people I’ve ever known—isolated on the profoundest levels by a certain traumatic displacement from ordinary human consolation.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 2, 2019
The 95-51 score against Oklahoma that ensued became the profoundest romp in all the Final Fours.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 31, 2018
And it is the new sense of the emergent individual that I think may be the profoundest change of all.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2013
I watched with the profoundest satisfaction as five days of grime ran down my legs and out the drainhole, and noticed with astonished gratitude that my body had taken on a noticeably svelter profile.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
