You searched for: “abundances
abundance (s) (noun), abundances (pl)
1. A more than plentiful quantity of something: An abundance of wealth is a great amount of cash.
2. A lifestyle with more than adequate material provisions: Barry's family has abundances of different homes around the world as well as all of the luxuries that can be obtained for them.
3. A fullness of spirit that overflows: The sermon by the preacher was filled with an abundance of goodwill and kindness.
4. The extent to which an element is present in the earth or in a rock: There is a rumor of an abundance of minerals hidden in the abandoned mine.
5. The proportion of one isotope of an element, expressed by number of atoms, to the total quantity of the element: Mr. Young, the chemistry teacher, urged his classes to study and to understand the abundance factors of the chemical components.
6. Etymology: nothing suggests great abundance more vividly than overflowing waves; and that is the literal meaning of the word abundance.

In Latin, unda means "wave", poetically "sea". The Romans combined ab, "from", and unda into the word abundare, "to overflow"; literally, "to come from the waves" or "from the sea"; applied to anything very plentiful.

The stem of abundare resulted in the English verb "to abound", and a derivative provided the noun abundance. Inundate, "to flood", also comes from unda, as does undulate, "to move like the waves".

This entry is located in the following units: a-, ab-, abs- (page 12) -ance, -ancy (page 1) undu-, und- (page 1)