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wealth

n. uncountable
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford US //ˈwɛɫθ// UK //wˈɛlθ// wealth Archaic General-service

n. a large amount of money, property, or valuable things that a person or country owns. It can also mean having a lot of something useful, like knowledge.

n. an abundance of valuable possessions or money; the state of being rich. In a broader sense, it refers to a plentiful supply of a particular desirable thing.


SIMPLE

The family used their wealth to build a new hospital.

CONTEXTUAL

The country's wealth comes primarily from its vast reserves of natural gas and oil.

COMPLEX

The library offers a wealth of information for researchers interested in the social history of the Victorian era.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

Inherited from Middle English welth, welthe (“happiness, prosperity”), from Old English welþ, welþu, from Proto-West Germanic waliþu (“wealth”). Alternatively, possibly an alteration (due to similar words in -th: compare helth (“health”), derth (“dearth”)) of wele (“wealth, well-being, weal”), from Old English wela (“wealth, prosperity”), from Proto-Germanic walô (“well-being, prosperity”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“good, best”); equivalent to weal + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Dutch weelde (“wealth”), Low German weelde (“wealth”), Old High German welida, welitha (“wealth”). Related also to German Wohl (“welfare, well-being, weal”), Danish vel (“weal, welfare”), Swedish väl (“well-being, weal”). More at weal, well.

Usage

Primarily uncountable; when used to mean 'a large amount of something', it is often followed by the preposition 'of'.

Idioms1 entry

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