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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
profound
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a deep/profound influence
▪ His writings had a profound influence on the Romantic poets.
a profound impact (=very important)
▪ Population growth has a profound impact on world food demand.
deep/profound misgivings (=serious misgivings that will be difficult to solve)
▪ Teachers have deep misgivings about allowing business values to be used in schools.
my sincere/profound apologies (=used when you feel very sorry )
▪ Firstly, my sincere apologies for not having contacted you earlier.
▪ ‘I have been guilty of making some insensitive remarks,’ said Wright, who offered his profound apologies to everyone concerned.
profound admiration (=very great admiration)
▪ Bacon had often expressed his profound admiration for Picasso’s paintings.
profound implications (=extremely important or serious)
▪ The transformation of Europe has profound implications for the defence industries.
profound/powerful (=very big, in a way that changes someone or something significantly )
▪ My father’s death had a profound effect on me.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪ The contrast between the two men was as profound as their rivalry was to become.
▪ This class division is further reflected, as profound truths so often are, in humour.
▪ Television has had as profound an effect on contemporary sport as the railway or the popular press had on Victorian sport.
more
▪ But the indirect effects may be more profound.
▪ The problem began to expand to levels at once more profound and absurd.
▪ It had been something more profound, less explicable, than disillusionment, mid-life restlessness, the fear of a threatened scandal.
▪ In the process, their commitment to one another and to their vision for Magma grew more profound.
▪ They have a high wall around them, more profound than most people, more detached and scientific.
▪ It would be more profound, more telling and considerably more painful than even what the nightly news has served.
▪ The estrangement became even more profound when he told them that he was gay.
▪ In the last decade, however, more profound questions have been posed.
most
▪ This last question is probably the most profound.
▪ On his desk lay scripts for the Easter Triduum, the three most profound and extravagant liturgical celebrations of the year.
▪ Internally however, the most profound changes are taking place.
▪ This parting of the ways is of the most profound importance.
▪ The eyes of those suffering from brain damage showed a most profound distress.
▪ The most superficial phenomena are sometimes the most profound.
▪ At the most profound, over which we had no conscious control, we were ideally suited and at peace.
▪ Of all the signs and symbols the most profound are the sacraments.
so
▪ Discoveries like this are so profound and so radical that they are not easily accepted by the scientific community.
▪ Or maybe the trauma was so profound that they preferred to forget.
▪ Because their physical needs were so profound, there was not enough time to take their psychological and spiritual needs seriously.
▪ This can be so profound that, for example, the patient is initially thought to have Guillain-Barre syndrome.
very
▪ The post-war period has also been characterized by very profound changes in family and household formation patterns.
▪ We are seeing more people survive with very, very profound injuries because of new emergency treatment.
▪ This reflects very profound social changes in the number and type of independent households within contemporary Britain.
▪ Depression can be very profound, preventing the patient from doing any activity and with a significant risk of suicide.
▪ It may not be very profound, but it is supremely satisfying.
▪ One for every house in the window. Very profound!
■ NOUN
change
▪ Internally however, the most profound changes are taking place.
▪ Something else is needed, something that fits better with the profound changes we are going through.
▪ If one talks to Quebecers it is clear that a profound change in attitudes has occurred.
▪ Diana's thoughts were on the profound changes ahead.
▪ Art and artists have undergone profound changes since then.
▪ Between September 1926 and May 1927 Nizan underwent a profound change in his intellectual and emotional outlook.
▪ The post-war period has also been characterized by very profound changes in family and household formation patterns.
consequence
▪ And this had profound consequences for the functioning of each system.
▪ December is a month when what is said and who you meet could have profound consequences.
▪ As these change, so do capacities for different forms of political action, with profound consequences for the Labour Party.
difference
▪ Thus, Soviet and western art students shared similar struggles, yet they were also divided by profound differences.
▪ You should notice a profound difference.
disagreement
▪ There are, of course, profound disagreements between Marxist and elite writers as to the causal factors generating this phenomena.
▪ This has not removed the scope for profound disagreement about the relevance of such conditions.
effect
▪ Yet these elements have had a profound effect on the evolution of the Earth because of their radioactivity.
▪ This would have a profound effect on company organization.
▪ Selection pressure operates on all stages of life cycles and has profound effects on the physiology and biochemistry of parasites.
▪ The changes have had a profound effect.
▪ Yet its timing, duration, scale and outcome were to have a profound effect upon the form that the revolution took.
▪ Ideas about baby feeding and weaning are constantly changing and actual practice can have a profound effect on child health.
impact
▪ Population growth has and will have a profound impact upon world food demand.
▪ Being part of a group of superb people has a profound impact on every member.
▪ In any case, the work of insiders advocating social change is invaluable and has a profound impact.
implication
▪ This will have profound implications for established roles and relationships, and the development of people with talent to fill the roles.
▪ This has profound implications for our understanding of the evolution of sexually monomorphic ornaments in many other bird species.
▪ This has profound implications for our relationship, which should mirror that of Gods; caring and nurturing love for us.
▪ The report, which has profound implications for water managers, gives a detailed review of 1992.
▪ The profound implications for pupils' relationships with their families and communities should be recognised.
▪ This observation of Freud's has profound implications for the way in which psychoanalytic theory about groups and societies is built up.
▪ The use of pupil-managed learning has profound implications for the more effective deployment of skilled resources.
▪ The above design conclusions have profound implications for the construction details of my chair.
importance
▪ This reveals the profound importance of trust in a marriage.
▪ We attach profound importance to the fact that some industries advance.
▪ Without doubt, the latter development represents a secular change in the strategic environment of profound importance.
▪ This parting of the ways is of the most profound importance.
influence
▪ Although not formally a member Gore had a profound influence on Leese.
▪ Could such extraordinary images not exert a profound influence on art in this century?
▪ The designer's close encounter of severe illness had a profound influence on his scheme.
▪ Very few fully appreciated their profound influence on their junior colleagues.
▪ The historical legacy of this hegemony continues to have a profound influence on the contemporary political landscape.
▪ He had a profound influence at a personal level on his contemporaries.
▪ These two beliefs, not overtly of political relevance, are to exert a profound influence on political thought.
insight
▪ But life is not all clear, and the most profound insights in this life and the world are not clear propositions.
level
▪ In the sacraments the physical and the spiritual are connected on a profound level.
▪ I had to believe that history, destiny, was written at a much more profound level.
question
▪ To these vitally important and profound questions there are no simple answers.
▪ In the last decade, however, more profound questions have been posed.
▪ This is a profound question, and present-day quantum theory does not really provide us with a satisfying answer.
sense
▪ There was an even more profound sense in which the prevailing version of good practice was deficient.
▪ And yet, he could see in his grandfather a shameless self-importance, a profound sense of entitlement.
▪ The staff in turn are likely to experience guilt and a profound sense of failure.
▪ He blushed from a profound sense of embarrassment.
▪ In a profound sense we doubt not only because we are ignorant of something but because we are absolutely certain of nothing.
▪ Overall there is a profound sense of estrangement and disappointment afoot in our country.
▪ Because of this profound sense of acceptance, we understand and come to terms with our own uniqueness.
▪ Hurrying out with a profound sense of failure, she brushed by a man watching from the stairs of the rehearsal studio.
shift
▪ Ken Livingstone's ejection from the executive was merely the most public manifestation of a profound shift in Labour's internal ecology.
▪ Events to date represent only the beginnings of a more profound shift.
transformation
▪ A profound transformation took place, one which was far from obvious to the casual outside observer.
▪ In short, the commercialization of the Internet promises to produce profound transformation of business and economic forces in the global marketplace.
truth
▪ This class division is further reflected, as profound truths so often are, in humour.
▪ The artist, he insisted, was capable of extracting a more profound truth from nature.
▪ Fuentes here touches on a profound truth-that memory best resides in the feminine.
understanding
▪ But how do we recognize a genuine or a profound understanding of society?
▪ This new attitude assumes that beliefs in occult power are solidly based in a true and more profound understanding of ultimate verities.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a profound remark
▪ a book with profound social implications
▪ Burton's lecture was amusing as well as being profound.
▪ Further research has resulted in a more profound appreciation of the problem.
▪ Her death left me with a profound sense of sadness.
▪ Much of what he had to say was very profound.
▪ The book contains a great many profound insights into human behaviour.
▪ The impact of these changes will be profound.
▪ There was a profound silence after his remark.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It was also seen as inflicting profound effects on individuals' lives.
▪ The changes have had a profound effect.
▪ The morning air grows thick with incense and the droning of ancient sutras, as lulling and profound as waves.
▪ To achieve this a set of regulations has been introduced which is having a profound effect on the electrical and electronics sectors.
▪ Underlying this hostility was a profound belief in the ethical and moral superiority of collective welfare provision.
▪ Very few fully appreciated their profound influence on their junior colleagues.
▪ Women who through their racism, collusion and a profound lack of political intelligence, made my sisters and me completely invisible.
▪ Yet when death whisks away that incandescent vitality, the shock is all the more electric and profound.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Profound

Profound \Pro*found"\, v. i. To dive deeply; to penetrate. [Obs.]

Profound

Profound \Pro*found"\, v. t. To cause to sink deeply; to cause to dive or penetrate far down. [Obs.]
--Sir T. Browne.

Profound

Profound \Pro*found"\, n.

  1. The deep; the sea; the ocean.

    God in the fathomless profound Hath all this choice commanders drowned.
    --Sandys.

  2. An abyss.
    --Milton.

Profound

Profound \Pro*found"\, a. [F. profond, L. profundus; pro before, forward + fundus the bottom. See Found to establish, Bottom lowest part.]

  1. Descending far below the surface; opening or reaching to a great depth; deep. ``A gulf profound.''
    --Milton.

  2. Intellectually deep; entering far into subjects; reaching to the bottom of a matter, or of a branch of learning; thorough; as, a profound investigation or treatise; a profound scholar; profound wisdom.

  3. Characterized by intensity; deeply felt; pervading; overmastering; far-reaching; strongly impressed; as, a profound sleep. ``Profound sciatica.''
    --Shak.

    Of the profound corruption of this class there can be no doubt.
    --Milman.

  4. Bending low, exhibiting or expressing deep humility; lowly; submissive; as, a profound bow.

    What humble gestures! What profound reverence!
    --Duppa.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
profound

c.1300, "characterized by intellectual depth," from Old French profund (12c., Modern French profond), from Latin profundus "deep, bottomless, vast," also "obscure; profound; immoderate," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + fundus "bottom" (see fund (n.)). The literal and figurative senses both were in Latin, but English, having already deep, employed this word primarily in its figurative sense. Related: Profoundly.

Wiktionary
profound
  1. 1 descend far below the surface; opening or reaching to great depth; deep. 2 Very deep; very serious 3 intellectual deep; entering far into subjects; reaching to the bottom of a matter, or of a branch of learning; thorough; as, a profound investigation or treatise; a profound scholar; profound wisdom. 4 Characterized by intensity; deeply felt; pervade; overmastering; far-reaching; strongly impressed; as, a profound sleep. 5 Bending low, exhibiting or expressing deep humility; lowly; submissive; as, a profound bow. n. 1 (context obsolete English) The deep; the sea; the ocean. 2 (context obsolete English) An abyss. v

  2. 1 (context obsolete English) To cause to sink deeply; to cause to dive or penetrate far down. 2 (context obsolete English) To dive deeply; to penetrate.

WordNet
profound
  1. adj. showing intellectual penetration or emotional depths; from the depths of your being; "the differences are profound"; "a profound insight"; "a profound book"; "a profound mind"; "profound contempt"; "profound regret" [ant: superficial]

  2. of the greatest intensity; complete; "a profound silence"; "a state of profound shock"

  3. far-reaching and thoroughgoing in effect especially on the nature of something; "the fundamental revolution in human values that has occurred"; "the book underwent fundamental changes"; "committed the fundamental error of confusing spending with extravagance"; "profound social changes" [syn: fundamental]

  4. coming from deep within one; "a profound sigh"

  5. (of sleep) deep and complete; "a heavy sleep"; "fell into a profound sleep"; "a sound sleeper"; "deep wakeless sleep" [syn: heavy, sound, wakeless]

  6. situated at or extending to great depth; too deep to have been sounded or plumbed; "the profound depths of the sea"; "the dark unfathomed caves of ocean"-Thomas Gray; "unplumbed depths of the sea"; "remote and unsounded caverns" [syn: unfathomed, unplumbed, unsounded]

Usage examples of "profound".

Lastly, I wish to express my profoundest gratitude to Ruth Aley, who first saw the book in the manuscript.

Whether the legend and history of this Degree are historically true, or but an allegory, containing in itself a deeper truth and a profounder meaning, we shall not now debate.

This was the profound truth hidden in the ancient allegory and covered from the general view with a double veil.

No focus anymore, just mindless ambling, spending his blood, dying in profound shock and absolute terror.

A profound confession, coming from library, who was after all the repository of every bit of knowledge the members of the Associative had ever accumulated.

What had possessed the Archimage Binah to think that they were worthy to carry instruments of profound magical power?

The government of a mighty empire may assuredly suffice to occupy the time, and the abilities, of a mortal: yet the diligent prince, without aspiring to the unsuitable reputation of profound learning, always reserved some moments of his leisure for the instructive amusement of reading.

The maiden was attired in deep mourning, and though looking very pale, her surpassing beauty produced a strong impression upon Sir Francis Mitchell, who instantly arose on seeing her, and made her a profound, and, as he considered, courtly salutation.

Solms came from the besieging camp to investigate the sudden uproar, and to his profound astonishment was met by a deputation from the city asking for terms of surrender.

In consequence of their endlessly varied, constantly recurring, intensely earnest speculations and musings over this contrast of finite restlessness and pain with infinite peace and blessedness, a contrast which constitutes the preaching of their priests, saturates their sacred books, fills their thoughts, and broods over all their life, the Orientals are pervaded with a profound horror of individual existence, and with a profound desire for absorption into the Infinite Being.

And now, at last, as she stood in the stern of the ship, in a pitch-dark, rather blowy night, feeling the motion of the sea, and watching the small, rather desolate little lights that twinkled on the shores of England, as on the shores of nowhere, watched them sinking smaller and smaller on the profound and living darkness, she felt her soul stirring to awake from its anaesthetic sleep.

While he has produced an unabashedly commercial page-turner, Braver has also probed, in a profound and often disturbing fashion, some fundamental questions about the ever-expanding role of biotechnology in modern life.

The Bravo ceased to adjust the disguise of his companion, and the profound stillness which succeeded his remark proved so painful to Antonio, that he felt like one reprieved from suffocation, when he heard the deep respiration that announced the relief of his companion.

In that profoundest and intensest of all his profound and intense passages, the apostle has occasion to seek about for some expression, some epithet, some adjective, as we say, to apply to sin so as to help him to bring out to his Roman readers something of the malignity, deadliness, and unspeakable evil of sin as he had sin living and working in himself.

Margaret was sure, somewhere in her mind, that if she were only strong enough, she could get over her profound aversion to the matrices, and be able to sit with Dio.