plenum
/ˈplɛnəm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.78 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A space that is completely filled with matter.
noun
A legislative meeting (especially of the Communist Party) in which all members are present.
Example Sentences
- "The idea was that a thing could only move into an empty place, and that, in a plenum, there are no empty places."
- "The key to understanding medieval interpretations of motion in hypothetically void space is to realize that medieval natural philosophers analyzed the same bodies in the void that they discussed in the plenum of their ordinary world."
- "He lay on the long stone slant down to the slapping waves, his denim shorts, sneakers, and socks under his head for a pillow, feeling the splendour of distance in all directions, the liquid silence, the plenum of aloneness."
Etymology
From Latin plēnum n (“space filled with matter”), from plēnus (“full”). The sense of "legislative meeting" is a semantic loan from Russian пле́нум (plénum, “plenary session”), from the same Latin source.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: plēnum
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈplɛnəm/
- British English: /ˈpliːnəm/
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
in pleno
plenary