rife
Americanadjective
-
of common or frequent occurrence; prevalent; in widespread existence, activity, or use.
Crime is rife in the slum areas of our cities.
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current in speech or report.
Rumors are rife that the government is in financial difficulty.
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abundant, plentiful, or numerous.
- Synonyms:
- teeming, multitudinous, plenteous
- Antonyms:
- scarce
-
abounding (usually followed bywith ).
adjective
-
of widespread occurrence; prevalent or current
rumour was rife in the village
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very plentiful; abundant
-
(foll by with) abounding (in)
a land rife with poverty
Other Word Forms
- overrife adjective
- rifely adverb
- rifeness noun
- unrife adjective
Etymology
Origin of rife
before 1150; Middle English; Old English rīfe; cognate with Middle Dutch rijf abundant, Old Norse rīfr
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.
What exactly "running the country" actually means is unclear, but the pledge represents an abrupt change of course for the president, rife with contradictions and daunting obstacles.
From BBC
Other areas rife for disputes involve everything from funeral arrangements to beneficiaries.
From MarketWatch
Tehran is running out of water, and power shortages are rife.
Rolex looked at the multibillion-dollar annual trade in its secondhand watches, which is rife with counterfeits and speculators, and decided it had to intervene.
Care, respect and precision permeate many aspects of Japan’s culture, and this book is delightfully rife with examples.
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.
