Pet Peeve Alert: “Plethora”
Dear Legal Writer,
I’ve been seeing “plethora” used inappropriately in WAY too many LinkedIn posts from legal peeps recently:
▫️ “We discussed a plethora of topics on the podcast.”
▫️ “Our new expert witness has a plethora of good ideas.”
▫️ “Jane has a plethora of adorable pets at her house
Yikes! So I gather:
—the podcast was scattered and superficial;
—the expert’s head is about to explode; and
—Jane is running a zoo!
👉 Here’s why:
The word “plethora” means “a bodily condition characterized by an excess of blood and marked by turgescence and a florid complexion.”
YICK!!
To be honest, when I hear “plethora,” I think of something absolutely disgusting, and certainly nothing positive. The word actually sounds like some horrible skin condition to me.
Now, it is true that we all have extended the word’s use to mean a glut or excess of anything, and that makes sense to me. But it is NOT true that the word simply means “a lot.”
🔷 RULE: Unless there are TOO many, or an OVERabundance of something, do not use the word “plethora.”
Having a “plethora” is a PROBLEM, not a good thing.
👉 In fact, Bryan A. Garner says that using “plethora” to mean “plenty” or “many” demonstrates “an unfortunate degeneration of the word’s sense.”
—Bryan A. Garner, Garner’s Modern English Usage, 5th ed., at 841 (Oxford Univ. Press 2022) (“Unfortunately, through misunderstanding of the word’s true sense, many writers use it as if it were equivalent to ‘plenty’ or ‘many.’ . . . [That] represents an unfortunate degeneration of the word’s sense.”)
—See also Bryan A. Garner, Garner’s Modern American Usage, 3rd ed., at 634 (Oxford Univ Press 2009) (“According to the [Oxford English Dictionary] and most other dictionaries, this word refers (and has always referred) to an overabundance, an overfulness, or an excess.”);
—id. (“The phrase ‘a plethora of’ is essentially a highfalutin equivalent of TOO many.”).
***
Here are a few examples of better use:
✅ The plethora of decision makers in the room made it challenging for the committee to get anything done.
✅ The plethora of extracurricular activities for 2Ls can make it difficult to maintain a thriving social life outside of law school.
✅ The personal statement in a law-school application affords you an opportunity to differentiate yourself from the plethora of other applicants with similar test scores.
***
🗳️ Dare I ask, what about you? Have you been using “plethora” to mean “a lot,” rather than “an excess,” too?
Fondly,
💌 Amanda
#DearLegalWriter
P.S. You will see “plethora” used inappropriately more than not. And some dictionaries even endorse that meaning. That does not make it right, much less best practice. Do you really want to risk a reader thinking of the original meaning of “plethora”? What if it’s a judge reading your brief? I bet a bunch of judges listen to Garner, not dictionary.com. Please strive to be both accurate, precise, and bad-connotation-free in legal writing.
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