Recently I read a report that said there are a plethora of studies on the nursing shortage. To me, "plethora" means an overabundance, an excess -- not just "many", which is what I believe the author meant. In fact, in all sources one definition of plethora is an excess of blood in the circulatory system. Then, today, again, someone wrote in the newspaper about a plethora of death penalty cases that have been overturned. Are these uses correct? Isn't there a difference between overabundance and abundance?

Not sure, but "plethora" is an anagram for "Ah, petrol!"

Is that any help?

Yes, of course there is and you have identified it. A plethora means too many - not in the sense that there are so many that they create a problem but in the sense that there are simply more than required. It could be argued that if the first report on nursing shortages were a good one then two would constitute a plethora.

However there is a tendency nowadays for people (especially journalists who really should know better) to use the word plethora when they simply mean "a lot". That's just wrong.

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I have always understood that plethora (meaning an abundance) is usually used as a singular. "...There is a plethora of studies...", meaning "...there is an abundance of studies..."

When used as a plural, "...there are a plethora of studies..." I believe it would then mean "...several abundances of studies...", which is probably not the meaning required.

What do others think?

Richard English

RE, I agree with the above. I also get confused with myriad, which can be a noun or an adjective in English, but has always seemed more naturaly an adjective. For example, "There are myriad studies..." seems more natural than "Threre are a myriad of studies..." What do you think?

Richard, you are completely right, and my first example sentence is grammatically incorrect. While my AHD did not have a sentence using "plethora", dictionary.com had this one:
He labors under a plethora of wit and imagination. --Jeffrey.
Yet, I don't agree with you that it means abundance. I believe it to mean overabundance. There certainly is not an overabundance of studies about the nursing shortage--though there is an abundance of them. Now, for my second example, one could say (if he opposed the death penalty, as I do) that even one death penalty reversal is too many; in that case, plethora could be correct.

I'm with Kalleh on this one - I think plethora is a synonym for surfeit rather than simply for abundance.

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In fact, my point was not about the meaning of the word, simply as to whether is was a singular or plural.

In fact, the OED defines it as an oversupply, excess or glut.

I simply used the word abundance in my sentence to make the usage point.

Richard English

Oh--okay, Richard. I misunderstood you. At any rate, I do not believe that plethora is correctly used in most situations. Just today I was speaking to a writer who says that she uses it to mean "abundance".

Now, Asa, as to your question. That's a good one too! I had never thought of "myriad" as being an adjective, but you are completely right. In AHD there is a usage note saying that throughout its history "myriad" was used as a noun. In the 19th century people started to use it as an adjective--and soon people thought of it as only an adjective. However, now both uses are accepted. The example AHD gave was Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Myriad myriads of lives.

I stumbled upon a similar word just the other day in a news report of someone whose location was unknown. The report said that his "whereabouts is not being released to the media" (or some such) which grates on my ear. If "whereabouts" = "location" well, yes, maybe, but still...

I would have phrased it "his whereabouts are not being released" or, succumbing to my perverse nature, I might have just released his whereabouts, but that's just me.

Now this is interesting to me. I would have used "plethora" to mean an abundance, not necessarily or even particularly an over-abundance. But checking the dictionaries in one-look, I find that some say 'over-abundance' only (AHD, Oxford Paperback), while others give both meanings, with that meaning the more common.

In doing this I stumbled across a $100 word I've never seen before:
nimiety: superfluity; excess.

Question: Would all agree that 'plethora' is limited to discreet, countable items ("a plethora of rules") and does not apply to measured items ("a plethora of water")? (The same sort of thing that distinguishes 'lesser' and 'fewer'?)

Wordnerd, Good question!
I think that it applies only to countable things, but I am open on this one.....

quote:

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Originally posted by wordnerd:
Question: Would all agree that 'plethora' is limited to discreet, countable items ("a plethora of rules") and does not apply to measured items ("a plethora of water")? (The same sort of thing that distinguishes 'lesser' and 'fewer'?)

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I'd go along with that except that I think you mean "less" and "fewer" rather than "lesser" and "fewer".

Lesser is an adjective and is used differently.


For example
He is a lesser man than I.

It normally means somthing like "not as worthy".

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