embarrassment of riches
4
7.4
- noun
- /ɪmˈbærəsmənt əv ˈrɪtʃɪz/
:
abundancia de opciones
- This year's film festival has an embarrassment of riches, with so many excellent movies to choose from.
Examples
-
With hundreds of years of healing traditions and thousands of spas, this region has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to buying me time.
Blog text (11) -
We have an embarrassment of riches in this town when it comes to food options.
Blog text (22) -
It's an embarrassment of riches.
-
Our first problem was an embarrassment of riches.
Fiction book (1998) -
Its app selection is an embarrassment of riches
Blog text (27) -
Man, just an embarrassment of riches in this town...
Blog text (14) -
It was an embarrassment of riches.
Blog text (29) -
So I have a just an embarrassment of riches in front of me in the form of tabs open in this browser.
-
The IMDb listing for the full cast is an embarrassment of riches.
Blog text (10) -
"We have an embarrassment of riches," he said, tapping at one of the touchscreens.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
91
3.3
A large amount of something, more than you need
33
7.7
A much larger amount than people need or can manage
8
5.6
A lot of things that make choosing hard
5
1.4
A large amount of money and valuable things
1
3.5
A large amount of things or resources that is more than enough
Antonyms
How Abundant
4
7.4
7
5.7
192
3.1
91
3.3
4
1.7
29
4.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
embarrassment + of + riches
The constituents 'embarrassment' + 'riches' give a clear cue that the phrase involves riches creating an awkward or problematic situation, so learners can partially infer the idea of too much wealth causing difficulty. However, the required sense of 'embarrassment' (a difficulty or awkwardness caused by surplus) is less frequent than the common sense 'feeling ashamed', so the mapping is somewhat metaphorical and may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without exposure.
Etymology
The phrase embarrassment of riches may come from the image of a person surrounded by so much treasure that the riches become a problem and cause an embarrassment, meaning 'an awkward difficulty'. So today it means 'having so many good choices that it is hard to choose or manage'.