profusion
nounUS /pɹoʊˈfjuʒən/ · UK /pɹə(ʊ)ˈfjuːʒən/
Etymology From Middle French profusion, from Late Latin profusio.
1
abundance; the state of being profuse; a cornucopia
- His hair, in great profusion, streamed down over his shoulders.
- We set the men at work felling trees, selecting for the purpose jarrah, a hard, weather-resisting timber which grew in profusion near by.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VI, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:
3 more examples
- Although houses and factories appeared in great profusion in the 1930s, there still remain odd groups of cottages dating from an earlier and more countrified period.1951 November, R. K. Kirkland, “The Wimbledon and West Croydon Line of the Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 721:
- Elegant brick and stone buildings, with iron and glass canopies and decorative wooden scalloping and fencing—all evidencing care on the part of the architect to produce a pleasing, well-planned building—were submerged beneath a profusion of ill-conceived additions and camouflaged by vulgar paint schemes; and the original conception was lost.1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, pages 250–251:
- Elected leaders face a profusion of mega-pressure points these days – inflation, heat waves, high debt, or the pandemic.2022 July 18, “Italian pride in a leader's humility”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
2
lavish or imprudent expenditure; prodigality or extravagance
- Derived terms
- hypoprofusion