different between abundance vs bulk

English

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) abundaunce
• (obsolete) habundance
• (obsolete) boundance
• (card games) abondance

Etymology

• From Middle English abundaunce, habaundance, from Old French habundance, abondance, from Latin abundantia (“fullness, plenty”), from abund? (“to overflow”). See abound.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??b?n.dn?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??b?n.dn?s/, /??b?n.dn?ts/, /??bn?.dn?s/
• (Malaysia, Singapore) IPA^(key): /??b?n.d?nts/

Noun

abundance (countable and uncountable, plural abundances)

1. A large quantity; many. [First attested around 1150 to 1350.]

2. An overflowing fullness or ample sufficiency; profusion; copious supply; superfluity; plentifulness. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
   • c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War

     It is lamentable to remember what abundance of noble blood hath been shed with small benefit to the Christian state.

3. Wealth; affluence; plentiful amount of resources. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
4. Frequency, amount, ratio of something within a given environment or sample. [First attested in the late 19^th century.]
5. (card games) A bid to take nine or more tricks in solo whist. [First attested in the late 19^th century.]

Usage notes

• Synonym notes: 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.

Synonyms

• abundation (Chester)
• (large quantity): heap, load; see also Thesaurus:lot
• (ample sufficiency): exuberance, copiousness, overflow, plenty, plenteousness, plenitude, plentitude; see also Thesaurus:excess
• (plentiful amount of resources): riches, affluence, wealth; see also Thesaurus:wealth

Related terms

• abound
• abundant

Translations

References

• abundance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English abundaunce, from Old French habundance, from Latin abundantia. Equivalent to abund +? -ance.

Noun

abundance (plural abundances)

1. An abundance; enough.

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

English

Etymology

From Middle English bulk, bolke (“a heap, cargo, hold; heap; bulge”), borrowed from Old Norse búlki (“the freight or the cargo of a ship”), from Proto-Germanic *bulkô (“beam, pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?el?- (“beam, pile, prop”). Compare Icelandic búlkast (“to be bulky”), Swedish dialectal bulk (“a bunch”), Danish bulk (“bump, knob”).

Conflated with Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?lk, IPA^(key): /b?lk/
• Rhymes: -?lk

Noun

bulk (countable and uncountable, plural bulks)

(Can we add an example for this sense?)

1. Size, specifically, volume.
   • 1729. I Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, page 1.

     The Quantity of Matter is the measure of the same, arising from its density and bulk conjunctly.

   • The cliff-dwellers had chipped and chipped away at this boulder till it rested its tremendous bulk upon a mere pin-point of its surface.

2. Any huge body or structure.
3. The major part of something.
4. Dietary fibre.
5. (uncountable, transport) Unpackaged goods when transported in large volumes, e.g. coal, ore or grain.
6. (countable) a cargo or any items moved or communicated in the manner of cargo.
7. (bodybuilding) Excess body mass, especially muscle.
8. (bodybuilding) A period where one tries to gain muscle.
9. (brane cosmology) A hypothetical higher-dimensional space within which our own four-dimensional universe may exist.
10. (obsolete) The body.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of George Turberville to this entry?)

Translations

Adjective

bulk (not comparable)

1. being large in size, mass or volume (of goods, etc.)
2. total

Translations

Derived terms

• bulken (verb)

Verb

bulk (third-person singular simple present bulks, present participle bulking, simple past and past participle bulked)

1. (intransitive) To appear or seem to be, as to bulk or extent.
2. (intransitive) To grow in size; to swell or expand.
3. (intransitive) To gain body mass by means of diet, exercise, etc.
4. (transitive) To put or hold in bulk.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To add bulk to, to bulk out.

Related terms

• bulker
• bulkhead
• bulky
• bulk up
• in bulk

Translations