different between excess vs plenty

English

Etymology

From Middle English exces (“excess, ecstasy”), from Old French exces, from Latin excessus (“a going out, loss of self-possession”), from excedere, excessum (“to go out, go beyond”). See exceed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?s?s/, /?k?s?s/, /?k.?s?s/, /??ks?s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Noun

excess (countable and uncountable, plural excesses)

1. The state of surpassing or going beyond a limit; the state of being beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; more than what is usual or proper.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, King John, act 4, scene 2:

     To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

     To throw a perfume on the violet, . . .

     Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

   • c. 1690, William Walsh, "Jealosy", in The Poetical Works of William Walsh (1797), page 19 (Google preview):

     That kills me with excess of grief, this with excess of joy.
2. The degree or amount by which one thing or number exceeds another; remainder.

3. An act of eating or drinking more than enough.
   • :

     And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book III:

     Fair Angel, thy desire . . .

     . . . leads to no excess

     That reaches blame

4. (geometry) Spherical excess, the amount by which the sum of the three angles of a spherical triangle exceeds two right angles. The spherical excess is proportional to the area of the triangle.
5. (Britain, insurance) A condition on an insurance policy by which the insured pays for a part of the claim.

Synonyms

• (state of surpassing limits): See Thesaurus:excess
• (US, insurance): deductible

Antonyms

• deficiency

Derived terms

• in excess of
• spherical excess
• to excess

Related terms

• exceed
• excessive

Translations

Adjective

excess (not comparable)

1. More than is normal, necessary or specified.

Derived terms

• excess baggage
• excess kurtosis
• excess return
• nonexcess
• refractory anaemia with excess blasts

Verb

excess (third-person singular simple present excesses, present participle excessing, simple past and past participle excessed)

1. (US, transitive) To declare (an employee) surplus to requirements, such that he or she might not be given work.

See also

• usury

Further reading

• excess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• excess in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Translations

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 *pl?h?nós (“full”), from which English full also comes, via Proto-Germanic. Related to the Latin derivatives complete, deplete, replete.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?pl?nti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?pl?nti/, [?pl???i], [?pl?ni]
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): [?pl???i], [?pl?ni]
• Rhymes: -?nti
• Homophone: Pliny (pin-pen merger, silent 't')

Noun

plenty (countable and uncountable, plural plenties)

1. A more-than-adequate amount.

   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, others analyse it as a pronoun, or as both a noun and a pronoun.

Synonyms

• abundance
• profusion

Derived terms

Translations

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. More than sufficiently.

   This office is plenty big enough for our needs.
2. (colloquial) Used as an intensifier, very.

   She was plenty mad at him.

Translations

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

   • 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

Related terms

• plenitude
• plentitude

References

Anagrams

• pentyl