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effuse

/ɪˈfjuːs/adjective, verb

effuse is an adjective meaning “Poured out freely; profuse” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-F-F-U-S-E, and it appears about once in every 40 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does effuse mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Poured out freely; profuse.

  2. 2

    Disposed to pour out freely; prodigal.

  3. 3

    Spreading loosely, especially on one side.

    an effuse inflorescence

  4. 4

    Having the lips, or edges, of the aperture abruptly spreading, as in certain shells.

verb

  1. 1

    To emit; to give off.

  2. 2

    To gush; to be excitedly talkative and enthusiastic about something.

  3. 3

    To pour out like a stream or freely; to cause to exude; to shed.

  4. 4

    To leak out through a small hole.

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteeffusion; loss

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce effuse?

  • /ɪˈfjuːs/

As a verb (“To emit; to give off”): /ɪˈfjuːz/.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-effuse_(adjective).wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-effuse_(verb).wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of effuse

  • more effuse comparative
  • most effuse superlative
  • effuses present, singular, he/she/it
  • effusing participle, present
  • effused participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is effuse?

Effuse appears about once in every 40 million words in written English, the 194,306th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Effuse in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense to emit:

LanguageWords
Germanmitgeben, emittieren

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does effuse come from?

Borrowed from Middle French effuser, from Latin effusus, past participle of effundere (“to pour out”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).