Definition of "profound" []

• Situated at, extending to, or coming from a great depth; deep. (adjective)
• Coming as if from the depths of one's being: profound contempt. (adjective)
• Thoroughgoing; far-reaching: profound social changes. (adjective)
• Penetrating beyond what is superficial or obvious: a profound insight. (adjective)
• Unqualified; absolute: a profound silence. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In the introduction to Yale University Press's catalog of the show, the Whitney's director Adam Weinberg identifies what he calls a "profound sense of pathos" in Ms. Levine's work."
• "A key to this social transformation is in how we look at vulnerability, which I define as a profound openness."
• "When the patient has been cooled to what we call profound hypothermia, the bypass machine is turned off for the duration of circulatory arrest."