It's the Word of the Day podcast for May 5th.
Today's word is plethora, spelled P-L-E-T-H-O-R-A.
Plethora is a noun.
It refers to a very large amount or number of something.
Plethora is most often used in the phrase a plethora of.
Here's the word used in a sentence from where every ghost has a name,
a memoir of Taiwanese independence by Kim Liao.
In 1895, Japan won Taiwan from China in the Treaty of Shimonoseki,
ending the Sino-Japanese War, and from 1895 to 1945, the island was a colony of Japan.
The cultural influences of Japan persist to this day in the tiny coffee shops with their enticing nutty aromas,
in the plethora of Japanese-influenced sushi restaurants,
and in Taiwan's highly efficient postal service and train systems.
The word plethora was first used in English to refer to a medical condition marked by an excess volume of blood or other bodily fluid,
with associated swelling and redness.
Its Greek ancestor,
The noun plethora refers to a similar excess or to general fullness or crowdedness.
These days,
plethora is most often used in general contexts to refer to a large number or amount of something.
While plethora conveys a plural meaning, it is a grammatically singular word,
which makes choosing whether to pair it with a singular or plural verb confusing.