plenty

See also: Plenty

English

Etymology

From Middle English plentie, plentee, plente, from Anglo-Norman plenté, from Old French plenté, from Latin plenitatem, accusative of plenitas (“fullness”), from plenus (“complete, full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”), from which English full also comes, via Proto-Germanic. Related to the Latin derivatives complete, deplete, replete.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈplɛnti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈplɛnti/, [ˈplɛɾ̃i], [ˈplɛni]
  • (pin–pen merger, nt-flapping) IPA^(key): [ˈplɪɾ̃i], [ˈplɪni]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnti
• Homophone: Pliny (pin–pen merger, nt-flapping)

Noun

plenty (countable and uncountable, plural plenties)

1. A more-than-adequate amount; plenitude.

   We are lucky to live in a land of peace and plenty.

   • 1798, Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population:

     During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage, and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great that population is at a stand. In the mean time the cheapness of labour, the plenty of labourers, and the necessity of an increased industry amongst them, encourage cultivators to employ more labour upon their land, to turn up fresh soil, and to manure and improve more completely what is already in tillage

Usage notes

While some dictionaries analyse this word as a noun,^[1][2] others analyse it as a pronoun,^[3] or as both a noun and a pronoun.^[4][5][6]

Synonyms

• abundance
• profusion

Derived terms

terms derived from plenty (noun)

• horn of plenty
• in plenty
• land of plenty
• plenteous
• plentiful
• plenty as blackberries
• plenty to go around
• there are plenty more fish in the sea
• there are plenty of fish in the sea

Translations

a more-than-adequate amount

Arabic: كَثِير (ar) m (kaṯīr) Azerbaijani: bolluq (az) Belarusian: шмат (be) m (šmat) Bikol Central: dakol (bcl) Bulgarian: изоби́лие (bg) n (izobílie) Cebuano: daghan Chinese: Cantonese: 大把 (daai6 baa2) Mandarin: 豐富／丰富 (zh) (fēngfù) Czech: množství (cs), dost (cs) Dutch: overvloed (nl) m Esperanto: abundo (eo) Finnish: runsaasti (fi) French: abondance (fr) f Georgian: სიუხვე (siuxve) German: Fülle (de) f, Überfluss (de) m Gothic: 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌲𐌳𐌿𐌸𐍃 f (managdūþs) Greek: αφθονία (el) f (afthonía) Ancient: δαψίλεια f (dapsíleia) Hebrew: שפע (he) m Hungarian: bőség (hu) Igbo: oke (ig) Irish: leordhóthain f, flúirse f, fuílleach m Italian: abbondanza (it) f, cuccagna (it) f Japanese: 沢山 (ja) (たくさん, takusan), 豊富 (ja) (ほうふ, hōfu) Jersey Dutch: plänti Korean: 많음 (ko) (maneum) Macedonian: изо́билство n (izóbilstvo) Portuguese: abundância (pt) f Romanian: belşug (ro) n Russian: изоби́лие (ru) n (izobílije), оби́лие (ru) n (obílije), доста́ток (ru) m (dostátok), мно́жество (ru) n (mnóžestvo), избы́ток (ru) m (izbýtok) Sanskrit: आयात (sa) n (āyāta) Scottish Gaelic: pailteas m Spanish: abundancia (es) f Swedish: riklighet (sv) c Turkish: bolluk (tr) Ukrainian: доста́ток m (dostátok) Volapük: bundan (vo) Zazaki: boley pl, bolaxır pl

Pronoun

plenty

1. More than enough.

   I think six eggs should be plenty for this recipe.

Usage notes

See the notes about the noun.

Adverb

plenty (not comparable)

1. (Canada, US) More than sufficiently.

   This office is plenty big enough for our needs.

   • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1:

     For the likes of her, the down-at-heels support of Hoboken pier was plenty good enough.

2. (Canada, US, colloquial) Used as an intensifier, very.

   She was plenty mad at him.

   • 2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 7 December 2017:

     Seeing clichés mimicked this skillfully is plenty hilarious.

Descendants

• → Norwegian Bokmål: plenty
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: plenty

Translations

more than sufficiently or very

Azerbaijani: bol (az), kalan (colloquial) Belarusian: мно́га (mnóha) Bulgarian: много (bg) (mnogo), достатъчно (bg) (dostatǎčno) Finnish: riittävästi (fi) Galician: abondo (gl) Greek: αρκετά (el) (arketá) Haitian Creole: anpil Italian: abbondantemente (it) Japanese: please add this translation if you can Macedonian: до́ста (dósta), мно́гу (mk) (mnógu) Russian: мно́го (ru) (mnógo), доста́точно (ru) (dostátočno), предоста́точно (ru) (predostátočno) Swedish: rikligt (sv) Ukrainian: бага́то (uk) (baháto), доста́тньо (dostátnʹo) Zazaki: bıtıryayış

Determiner

plenty

1. (nonstandard) much, enough

   There'll be plenty time later for that

2. (nonstandard) many

   Get a manicure. Plenty men do it.

Adjective

plenty (comparative more plenty, superlative most plenty)

1. (obsolete) plentiful
   • 1597, Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene IV:

     if reasons were as plenty as blackberries

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     There are, among the Irish, men of as much worth and honour as any among the English: nay, to speak the truth, generosity of spirit is rather more common among them. I have known some examples there, too, of good husbands; and I believe these are not very plenty in England.

   • 1836, The American Gardener's Magazine and Register, volume 2, page 279:

     Radishes are very plenty. Of cabbages a few heads of this year's crop have come to hand this week, and sold readily at quotations; […]

Translations

plentiful — see plentiful

Related terms

• plenitude
• plentitude

References

1. “plenty”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
2. “plenty”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
3. Macmillan
4. “oxforddictionaries.com”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, 2014 February 28 (last accessed), archived from the original on 8 May 2014
5. Harrap's essential English Dictionary (1996)
6. Heinemann English Dictionary (2001)

Anagrams

• pentyl