ABUNDANCE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does abundance mean? 

• ABUNDANCE (noun)
  The noun ABUNDANCE has 3 senses:

1. the property of a more than adequate quantity or supply

2. (physics) the ratio of the number of atoms of a specific isotope of an element to the total number of isotopes present

3. (chemistry) the ratio of the total mass of an element in the earth's crust to the total mass of the earth's crust; expressed as a percentage or in parts per million

  Familiarity information: ABUNDANCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABUNDANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The property of a more than adequate quantity or supply

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

abundance; copiousness; teemingness

Context example:

an age of abundance

Hypernyms ("abundance" is a kind of...):

quantity (an adequate or large amount)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "abundance"):

amplitude; bountifulness; bounty (the property of copious abundance)

plenitude; plenteousness; plentifulness; plentitude; plenty (a full supply)

cornucopia; profuseness; profusion; richness (the property of being extremely abundant)

wealth (the quality of profuse abundance)

lushness; luxuriance; voluptuousness (the property of being lush and abundant and a pleasure to the senses)

overabundance; overmuch; overmuchness; superabundance (a quantity that is more than what is appropriate)

Antonym:

scarcity (a small and inadequate amount)

Derivation:

abound (be abundant or plentiful; exist in large quantities)

abundant (present in great quantity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(physics) the ratio of the number of atoms of a specific isotope of an element to the total number of isotopes present

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Hypernyms ("abundance" is a kind of...):

ratio (the relative magnitudes of two quantities (usually expressed as a quotient))

Domain category:

natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(chemistry) the ratio of the total mass of an element in the earth's crust to the total mass of the earth's crust; expressed as a percentage or in parts per million

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Hypernyms ("abundance" is a kind of...):

ratio (the relative magnitudes of two quantities (usually expressed as a quotient))

Domain category:

chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)

 Context examples 

The research may not only help resolve the question regarding the Moon’s apparent low ice abundance relative to Mercury, but it could also have practical applications.

(The Moon and Mercury May Have Thick Ice Deposits, NASA)

The astronomers also compared the relative amounts of Freon-40 that contain different isotopes of chlorine in the infant star system and the comet — and found similar abundances.

(ALMA and Rosetta Detect Freon-40 in Space, ESO)

The scientists discovered that kelp also uses another form of dissolved nitrogen, urea, found in abundance in coastal upwelling zones such as the Santa Barbara Channel.

(Giant kelp switches diet when key nutrient becomes scarce, National Science Foundation)

Though controversy still surrounds the origin, abundance and history of water on Mars, this discovery helps resolve the question of where the “missing Martian water” may have gone.

(New Evidence for a Mars Water Reservoir, NASA)

The researchers found that the abundance of the most dominant species scales with the total number of individuals across 30 orders of magnitude, making it the most expansive scaling law in biology.

(Researchers find that Earth may be home to 1 trillion species, NSF)

These are spicules, and despite their grass-like abundance, scientists didn’t understand how they form.

(Scientists Uncover Origins of the Sun’s Swirling Spicules, NASA)

Home to an abundance of young stars, it has drawn the attention of astronomers for decades.

(Spitzer Studies a Stellar Playground With a Long History, NASA)

“If the water abundance in Jupiter were found to be plentiful as predicted, it would imply that it formed in a different way to the exoplanets we looked at in the current study.”

(Water common – yet scarce – in exoplanets, University of Cambridge)

"Sharp-wave ripple abundance predicts how quickly a mouse can learn and memorize how to get through a maze, and short gamma power predicts how accurate that memory will be."

(Predicting Alzheimer's-like memory loss before it strikes, National Science Foundation)

More recently, the combined effects of commercial krill fishing, climate change, and the recovery of seal and whale populations may have drastically decreased the abundance of krill.

(Whaling and climate change lead to 100 years of feast or famine for Antarctic penguins, National Science Foundation)