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Supply vs Plethora - What's the difference?

supply | plethora |

As nouns the difference between supply and plethora

is that supply is (uncountable) the act of supplying while plethora is (usually|followed by of) an excessive amount or number; an abundance.

As a verb supply

is to provide (something), to make (something) available for use.

As an adverb supply

is supplely: in a supple manner, with suppleness.

supply

English

(wikipedia supply)

Alternative forms

* supplely

Etymology 1

From (etyl) souploier, from (etyl) .

Verb

  • To provide (something), to make (something) available for use.
  • to supply money for the war
    (Prior)
  • To furnish or equip with.
  • to supply''' a furnace with fuel; to '''supply soldiers with ammunition
  • To fill up, or keep full.
  • Rivers are supplied by smaller streams.
  • To compensate for, or make up a deficiency of.
  • * 1881 , :
  • It was objected against him that he had never experienced love. Whereupon he arose, left the society, and made it a point not to return to it until he considered that he had supplied the defect.
  • To serve instead of; to take the place of.
  • * Waller
  • Burning ships the banished sun supply .
  • * Dryden
  • The sun was set, and Vesper, to supply / His absent beams, had lighted up the sky.
  • To act as a substitute.
  • To fill temporarily; to serve as substitute for another in, as a vacant place or office; to occupy; to have possession of.
  • to supply a pulpit
    Derived terms
    * supplier

    Noun

    (supplies)
  • (uncountable) The act of supplying.
  • supply and demand
  • (countable) An amount of something supplied.
  • A supply of good drinking water is essential.
  • (in the plural) provisions.
  • (mostly, in the plural) An amount of money provided, as by Parliament or Congress, to meet the annual national expenditures.
  • to vote supplies
  • Somebody, such as a teacher or clergyman, who temporarily fills the place of another; a substitute.
  • Derived terms
    * supply teacher

    Etymology 2

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Supplely: in a supple manner, with suppleness.
  • * 1906 , Ford Madox Ford, The fifth queen: and how she came to court , page 68:
  • His voice was playful and full; his back was bent supply .
  • * 1938 , David Leslie Murray, Commander of the mists :
  • * 1963 , Johanna Moosdorf, Next door :
  • She swayed slightly in the gusts, bent supply to them and seemed at one with the force which Straup found so hostile.
  • * 1988 , ??????? ?????????????? ???????? (Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov), Quiet flows the Don (translated), volume 1, page 96:
  • Grigory hesitantly took her in his arms to kiss her, but she held him off, bent supply backwards and shot a frightened glance at the windows.
    'They'll see!'
    'Let them!'
    'I'd be ashamed—'

    plethora

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (usually, followed by of) An excessive amount or number; an abundance.
  • The menu offers a plethora of cuisines from around the world.
  • * Jeffrey
  • He labours under a plethora of wit and imagination.
  • (medicine, archaic) An excess of red blood cells or bodily humours.
  • Quotations

    * 1849 , *: I pushed my seat right up before the most insolent gazer, a short fat man, with a plethora of cravat round his neck, and fixing my gaze on his, gave him more gazes than he sent. * 1927 , (The Aftermath of Gothic Fiction) *: Meanwhile other hands had not been idle, so that above the dreary plethora of trash like Marquis von Grosse's Horrid Mysteries ..., there arose many memorable weird works both in English and German.

    Synonyms

    * glut, myriad, surfeit, superfluity, slew

    See also

    * myriad

    References

    * “ plethora]” listed in the [2nd Ed.; 1989
    Pronounced: .

    Anagrams

    * ----