different between plethora vs voracious

English

Etymology

From Late Latin pl?th?ra, from Ancient Greek ??????? (pl?th?r?, “fullness, satiety”), from ????? (pl?th?, “to be full”) +? -? (-?, nominal suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pl??th?r?, pl??dh?r?, pl?thô?r?, IPA^(key): /?pl?????/, /?pl?ð???/, /pl???????/
• (General American) enPR: pl??th?r?, IPA^(key): /?pl?????/
• Rhymes: -????

Noun

plethora (plural plethorae or plethoras)

1. (usually followed by of) An excessive amount or number; an abundance.
   • 1817, Francis Jeffrey, review of Lalla Rookh, in the Edinburgh Review

     He labours under a plethora of wit and imagination.

   • 1849, Herman Melville, Redburn. His First Voyage

     I pushed my seat right up before the most insolent gazer, a short fat man, with a plethora of cravat round his neck, and fixing my gaze on his, gave him more gazes than he sent.

   • 1927, H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature (The Aftermath of Gothic Fiction)

     Meanwhile other hands had not been idle, so that above the dreary plethora of trash like Marquis von Grosse's Horrid Mysteries..., there arose many memorable weird works both in English and German.

   • 1986, Lorne Michaels, Steve Martin, Randy Newman, ¡Three Amigos! (film)

     Jefe: We have many beautiful piñatas for your birthday celebration, each one filled with little surprises!

     El Guapo: How many piñatas?

     Jefe: Many piñatas, many!

     El Guapo: Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of piñatas?

     Jefe: A what?

     El Guapo: A plethora.

     Jefe: Oh yes, El Guapo. You have a plethora.

     El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?

     Jefe: Why, El Guapo?

     El Guapo: Well, you just told me that I had a plethora, and I would just like to know if you know what it means to have a plethora. I would not like to think that someone would tell someone else he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora.

     Jefe: El Guapo, I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education, but could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?
2. (medicine) Chronic excess of blood in the skin, usually in the face.

Synonyms

• (excess, abundance): glut, myriad, surfeit, superfluity, slew

Related terms

• plethoric

Translations

See also

• myriad

References

• “plethora” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]
  Pronounced: /?pl???r?/, /pl?????r?/.

Anagrams

• Althorpe, traphole, tropheal

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????? (pl?th?r?, “fullness, satiety”), from ????? (pl?th?, “to be full”) +? -? (-?, nominal suffix).

Pronunciation

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ple?to.ra/, [pl??t?????]

Noun

pl?th?ra f (genitive pl?th?rae); first declension

1. (Late Latin) plethora

Inflection

First-declension noun.

Descendants

• ? English: plethora

English

Etymology

From Latin vor?x, from vor? (“I devour”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v????e?.??s/, /v???e?.??s/
• Rhymes: -e???s

Adjective

voracious (comparative more voracious, superlative most voracious)

1. Wanting or devouring great quantities of food.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, ch. 6:

     I never had so much as . . . one wish to God to direct me whither I should go, or to keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me, as well from voracious creatures as cruel savages.

   • 1867, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. 45:

     The old man was up, betimes, next morning, and waited impatiently for the appearance of his new associate, who after a delay that seemed interminable, at length presented himself, and commenced a voracious assault on the breakfast.

   • 1910, Jack London, "The Human Drift":

     Retreating before stronger breeds, hungry and voracious, the Eskimo has drifted to the inhospitable polar regions.

2. Having a great appetite for anything.
   • 1922, Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, ch. 7:

     If he carried chiefly his appetite, a zeal for tiled bathrooms, a conviction that the Pullman car is the acme of human comfort, and a belief that it is proper to tip waiters, taxicab drivers, and barbers, but under no circumstances station agents and ushers, then his Odyssey will be replete with good meals and bad meals, bathing adventures, compartment-train escapades, and voracious demands for money.

   • 2005, Nathan Thornburgh, "The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies," Time, 29 Aug.:

     Methodical and voracious, these hackers wanted all the files they could find.

Synonyms

• (devouring great quantities of food): See Thesaurus:voracious
• (having a great appetite for anything): See Thesaurus:greedy

Derived terms

Related terms

• voracity

Translations