Rife

adj, adv

adj, adv ·1 syllable ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).

    "Smallpox was rife after the siege had been lifted."

  2. 2
    Abounding; present in large numbers, plentiful.

    "Red deer are rife in these woodlands."

  3. 3
    Full of (mostly unpleasant or harmful things).

    "Many post-colonial governments were rife with lawlessness and corruption."

  4. 4
    Having power; active; nimble. obsolete

    "What! I am rife a little yet."

Adjective
  1. 1
    excessively abundant wordnet
  2. 2
    most frequent or common wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Plentifully, abundantly.

    "The snowdrops grow rife on the slopes of Mount Pembroke."

Synonyms

All synonyms
predominantaboundingabundantaffluentafloatalive

Example

More examples

"The village is rife with dirty shops selling cheapjack souvenirs."

Etymology

From Middle English rife, from Old English rīfe, rȳfe (“rife, abundant, frequent”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīb, from Proto-Germanic *rībaz (“generous”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to tear (off), rip”). Cognate with West Frisian rju (“rife, much”), Dutch rijf (“abundant, copious”), Low German rive (“abundant, munificent”), Icelandic rífur (“rife, munificent”), Faroese ríviligur (“plentiful, abundant”), Faroese rívan (“abundantly”), Icelandic reifa (“to bestow”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.