cornucopia

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noun cor·nu·co·pia \ˌkȯr-nə-ˈkō-pē-ə, -nyə-ˈkō-\

Definition of cornucopia

1 : a curved, hollow goat's horn or similarly shaped receptacle (such as a horn-shaped basket) that is overflowing especially with fruit and vegetables (such as gourds, ears of corn, apples, and grapes) and that is used as a decorative motif emblematic of abundance —called also horn of plenty
2 : an inexhaustible store : abundance We marveled at the cornucopia of fruits, meats, toys, fresh fish, baskets, utensils and leather goods for sale in stalls that lined the streets for as far as we could see. — Guy Garcia For contemporary performers, soul represents a cornucopia of musical ideas. — Jon Pareles
3 : a receptacle shaped like a horn or cone

cornucopian

play \ˌkȯr-nə-ˈkō-pē-ən, -nyə-ˈkō-\ adjective

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Examples of cornucopia in a Sentence

The market is a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables.
The book includes a cornucopia of wonderful stories.

Recent Examples of cornucopia from the Web

The district’s new food truck transports a cornucopia of meal options to four of those sites.

— lily oppenheimer, kansascity, "KCK Public Schools pilots new food truck to drive away children’s summer hunger", 20 June 2017
Salvatore Bacoalon and Suzanne Sten, Metropolitan opera stars, are shown making a recording in an antique cornucopia horn into which the great Caruso actually recorded.

— glen barber, The Denver Post, "PHOTOS: Today in history – June 17", 17 June 2017
In the space of a few decades, the waters of West Africa have moved from being a cornucopia of marine life to something that is far reduced from that.

— National Geographic, "New Ocean Reserve, Largest in Africa, Protects Whales and Turtles", 5 June 2017
Set to an engaging cornucopia of musical styles, from country-western and calypso to bubble-gum pop and rock ’n’ roll, this Old Testament tale emerges both timely and timeless.

— charlotteobserver, "Happening nearby south Charlotte: June 7-13, 2017", 5 June 2017
A cornucopia of 44 additional papers are being published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

— kenneth chang, New York Times, "NASA’s Jupiter Mission Reveals the ‘Brand-New and Unexpected’", 25 May 2017
Today, a cornucopia of industrial pollutants buffets the neighborhood, creating unusually high asthma rates.

— patricia leigh brown, The Christian Science Monitor, "How a forlorn playground became one of America’s most innovative public spaces", 24 May 2017
At the same time, Showtime’s two-hour opener, written by co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost, offered a cornucopia of head-scratchers that could be filed under: What the heck is going on?

— bill keveney, USA TODAY, "Recap: 'Twin Peaks' returns, and we (still) are full of questions", 21 May 2017
But a festival is made not by its theatre but by its movies, and this year’s schedule was a cornucopia unmatched in my previous years of attendance—

— richard brody, The New Yorker, "A Generational Shift in Independent Filmmaking, at the 2017 Maryland Film Festival", 9 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cornucopia'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

cornucopia Has Latin Origins and Greek History

Cornucopia comes from the Latin cornu copiae, which translates literally as "horn of plenty." A traditional staple of feasts, the cornucopia is believed to represent the horn of a goat from Greek mythology. According to legend, it was from this horn that the god Zeus was fed as an infant. Later, the horn was filled with flowers and fruits, and given as a present to Zeus. The filled horn (or a receptacle resembling it) has long served as a traditional symbol in art and decoration to suggest a store of abundance. The word first appeared in English in the early 16th century; a century later, it developed the figurative sense of an overflowing supply.