plethora
/ˈplɛθ(ə)rə
/noun
1A large or excessive amount of something: a plethora of committees and subcommittees Allen won a plethora of medals during his illustrious career...
- This was hardly a thriller, but there was plentiful excitement due to a plethora of mistakes from both defences in the second half.
- He was also a multi-talented musician who could adapt himself to a plethora of instruments.
- You can expect a plethora of them over the festive fortnight, and those with a taste for this kind of television must have been cheering last week.
2 Medicine An excess of a bodily fluid, particularly blood.With the development of plethora, the number of reticulated cells in the blood decreased....
- An anemia which developed despite continued blood transfusions in two dogs splenectomized during plethora has also been studied.
Usage
Strictly, a plethora is not just an abundance of something, it is an excessive amount. However, the new, looser sense is now so dominant that it must be regarded as part of standard English.
Derivatives
plethoric
- Why dedicate so much attention to Sugimoto and only illustrate Araki's plethoric production by four weakly-relevant small prints…?
- Our neighbour was a plethoric gentleman who sat, head bowed in hands, in front of a double whiskey, fast asleep.
- Many of the revisions they suggest exacerbate the leaden, plethoric style that comes naturally to lawyers (including law professors).
Origin
Mid 16th century (in the medical sense): via late Latin from Greek plēthōrē, from plēthein 'be full'.