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/plen"tee/, n., pl. plenties, adj., adv.n.1. a full or abundant supply or amount: There is plenty of time.2. the state or quality of being plentiful; abundance: resources in plenty.3. an abundance, as of goods or luxuries, or a time of such abundance: the plenty of a rich harvest; the plenty that comes with peace.adj.4. existing in ample quantity or number; plentiful; abundant: Food is never too plenty in the area.5. more than sufficient; ample: That helping is plenty for me.adv.6. Informal. fully; quite: plenty good enough.[1175-1225; ME plente < OF; r. ME plenteth < OF plented, plentet < L plenitat- (s. of plenitas) fullness. See PLENUM, -ITY]Syn. 2. plenteousness, copiousness, luxuriance, affluence. PLENTY, ABUNDANCE, PROFUSION refer to a large quantity or supply. PLENTY suggests a supply that is fully adequate to any demands: plenty of money. ABUNDANCE implies a great plenty, an ample and generous oversupply: an abundance of rain. PROFUSION applies to such a lavish and excessive abundance as often suggests extravagance or prodigality: luxuries in great profusion.Usage. The construction PLENTY OF is standard in all varieties of speech and writing: plenty of room in the shed. The use of PLENTY preceding a noun, without an intervening OF, first appeared in the late 19th century: plenty room in the shed. It occurs today chiefly in informal speech. As an adverb, a use first recorded in the mid-19th century, PLENTY is also informal and is found chiefly in speech or written representations of speech.
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Universalium. 2010.
