Abundance

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Abundance \A*bun"dance\ ([.a]*b[u^]n"dans), n. [OE.
     (h)abundaunce, abundance, F. abondance, L. abundantia, fr.
     abundare. See {Abound}.]
     An overflowing fullness; ample sufficiency; great plenty;
     profusion; copious supply; superfluity; wealth: -- strictly
     applicable to quantity only, but sometimes used of number.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           It is lamentable to remember what abundance of noble
           blood hath been shed with small benefit to the
           Christian state.                         --Raleigh.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Exuberance; plenteousness; plenty; copiousness;
          overflow; riches; affluence; wealth.
  
     Usage: {Abundance}, {Plenty}, {Exuberance}. These words rise
            upon each other in expressing the idea of fullness.
            Plenty denotes a sufficiency to supply every want; as,
            plenty of food, plenty of money, etc. Abundance
            express more, and gives the idea of superfluity or
            excess; as, abundance of riches, an abundance of wit
            and humor; often, however, it only denotes plenty in a
            high degree. Exuberance rises still higher, and
            implies a bursting forth on every side, producing
            great superfluity or redundance; as, an exuberance of
            mirth, an exuberance of animal spirits, etc.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  abundance
       n 1: the property of a more than adequate quantity or supply; "an
            age of abundance" [syn: {copiousness}, {teemingness}]
            [ant: {scarcity}]
       2: (physics) the ratio of the number of atoms of a specific
          isotope of an element to the total number of isotopes
          present
       3: (chemistry) the ratio of the total mass of an element in the
          earth's crust to the total mass of the earth's crust;
          expressed as a percentage or in parts per million

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  179 Moby Thesaurus words for "abundance":
     accumulation, acres, adequacy, affluence, amassment,
     ample sufficiency, ampleness, amplitude, avalanche, backlog, bags,
     barrels, bonanza, bountifulness, bountiousness, budget,
     bumper crop, bushel, cloud of words, collection, commissariat,
     commissary, competence, copiousness, cornucopia, countlessness,
     cumulation, diffuseness, diffusion, diffusiveness, dump, ease,
     easy street, effusion, effusiveness, enough, excess, extravagance,
     exuberance, fecundity, fertility, flood, flow, fluency, foison,
     formlessness, fructiferousness, fruitfulness, full measure,
     fullness, generosity, generousness, glut, great abundance,
     great plenty, gush, gushing, heap, hoard, infinitude,
     innumerability, inventory, landslide, larder, lavishness,
     liberality, liberalness, load, logorrhea, lots, lushness,
     luxuriance, macrology, manyness, mass, material, materials,
     materiel, maximum, more than enough, mountain, much,
     multifariousness, multifoldness, multiplicity, multitude,
     multitudinousness, munitions, myriad, myriads, nimiety,
     numerousness, ocean, oceans, opulence, opulency, outpour,
     outpouring, overflow, oversupply, palilogy, peck, pile, plenitude,
     plenteousness, plentifulness, plenty, pleonasm, pregnancy,
     prevalence, procreativeness, prodigality, productive capacity,
     productiveness, productivity, profuseness, profusion, prolificacy,
     prolificity, prosperousness, provisionment, provisions, quantities,
     quantity, rampancy, rankness, rations, redundancy, reiteration,
     reiterativeness, repertoire, repertory, repetition for effect,
     repetitiveness, repleteness, repletion, rich harvest, rich vein,
     richness, rick, rifeness, riot, riotousness, satiety, scads, sea,
     shower, spate, stack, stock, stock-in-trade, stockpile, store,
     stores, stream, substantiality, substantialness, sufficiency,
     superabundance, superfluity, superflux, supplies, supply on hand,
     surplus, swarmingness, talkativeness, tautology, teeming womb,
     teemingness, thriving, tirade, tons, treasure, treasury, volume,
     wealth, well-being, world, worlds