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.
But Neill is up to the task, creating an atmosphere of sheer bleakness with little more than a look that is, somehow, both vacant and teeming with emotion.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
Now, it is teeming with young healthcare professionals in scrubs and stethoscopes waiting for patients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Pop-up shops are teeming with football merchandise and viewing parties are spread across parks, shopping centres and even museums.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
US palaeontologist Stephen Godfrey compared the "truly unique discovery" to past major underwater finds, such as when scientists first identified hydrothermal vents teeming with life on the ocean floor in 1977.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
While Washington worried, the city’s taverns, beer gardens, and coffeehouses—all 176 of them—were teeming with activity that Saturday.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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.
