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.
Noun
plenty (countable and uncountable, plural plenties)
- 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]
Derived terms
terms derived from plenty (noun)
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
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Pronoun
plenty
- More than enough.
I think six eggs should be plenty for this recipe.
Usage notes
See the notes about the noun.
Adjective
plenty (comparative more plenty, superlative most plenty)
- (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; […]
References
“oxforddictionaries.com”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), 2014 February 28 (last accessed), archived from the original on 8 May 2014
Harrap's essential English Dictionary (1996)
Heinemann English Dictionary (2001)