/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 plenteth plented, plentet 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.