Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Characterized by rich or profuse growth: synonym: profuse.
- adjective Rich and elaborate, as in decoration.
- adjective Extremely productive.
- adjective Marked by or displaying luxury; luxurious.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Exuberant in growth; abundant: as, luxuriant foliage.
- Exuberant in quantity; superfluous in abundance.
- Supplied in great abundance; replete.
- In botany, having the floral envelop so multiplied as to destroy the essential parts: said of a flower: opposed to mutilated.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Exuberant in growth; rank; excessive; profuse; very abundant
- adjective Producing luxuriant growth; very fertile; -- of soil.
- adjective Having or producing an abundance of elaborate details; unrestrained; -- of imagery or ornamentation.
- adjective (Bot.) one in which the floral envelopes are overdeveloped at the expense of the essential organs.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Abundant in growth or detail.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective marked by complexity and richness of detail
- adjective displaying luxury and furnishing gratification to the senses
- adjective produced or growing in extreme abundance
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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High temperatures combined with lots of rainfall result in luxuriant vegetation and boundless wildlife.
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High temperatures combined with lots of rainfall result in luxuriant vegetation and boundless wildlife.
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A subcategory of this genre of books is composed of in-depth narrative accounts of the experiences of individual students applying to Ivy League colleges, their every emotional nuance dwelled on in luxuriant detail.
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A subcategory of this genre of books is composed of in-depth narrative accounts of the experiences of individual students applying to Ivy League colleges, their every emotional nuance dwelled on in luxuriant detail.
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We are too close to realities to indulge in luxuriant theories.
SpainIts Internal Issues and Repercussions As Affecting the British Empire 1939
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In front of the pulpit was a stand bearing tall white geraniums in luxuriant blossom.
Chronicles of Avonlea Lucy Maud 1912
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And birds were singing too, sometimes; and mosses were spread out in luxuriant patches of wood carpeting in many places; and rocks were brown and grey, and grown with other mosses and ferns; and through all this fairy work of beauty, Daisy's chair went at an easy, quiet pace, with a motion that she thought it very pleasant to feel.
Melbourne House 1907
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How delightful it was after descending along rugged paths to camp in luxuriant grass, and among brushwood which provided us with plenty of firewood.
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In Brazil, though rich in luxuriant vegetable and animal life, there is no history – all is new and progressive, but vulgar and parvenu; whereas Syria, in her abomination of desolation, is the old land, and she teems with relics of departed glory.
The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton William Henry Burton Wilkins 1897
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Her 'light-coloured' hair was not so light as to be uncomely, and fell in luxuriant ringlets all round the sides of her pretty head; and the head moved about enough to shake the ringlets, till they threatened to form a mazy net to catch men's eyes.
littletomclapping commented on the word luxuriant
The kid shouts it in Empire of the Sun. A well chosen word!
February 3, 2007