teeming
1 Americanadjective
-
abounding or swarming with something, as with people.
We elbowed our way through the teeming station.
-
prolific or fertile.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of teeming1
First recorded in 1525–35; teem 1 + -ing 2
Origin of teeming2
Explanation
Teeming means completely full, especially with living things. If your grandmother's apartment is teeming with cats, she sure has a lot of them. Any time something (or someplace) is filled with life, it's teeming with it. A gorgeous purple garden in the south of France might be teeming with lavender plants, and you might describe the crowded state fair grounds as teeming with people. The Old English root teman means to give birth to, and this used to be a common meaning of teeming — being fertile or pregnant, or producing young.
Vocabulary lists containing teeming
The Vernal Vocabulary of Spring
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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The Alchemist
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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.
Her footage is teeming with maternal pride, observant and heartwarming.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
This diversity is driven by diverse habitats: harsh deserts, vast grasslands, dense forests, towering mountains, lush coastlines and teeming seas.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
Like many on Martha’s Vineyard, a resort island off Cape Cod that’s teeming with ticks this year, I bid a sad farewell to hamburgers, bacon and lamb chops.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
Sam Sacks praises Ms. Daanje’s “vast, teeming novel” as an achievement that will leave readers with “a sense of a world transformed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
I laugh, remembering the teeming streets of London, with carriages and horses and people and hogs all vying for space on the cobblestones.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
