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If I have to say that:

"potatoes are so commonly available in that place that every random shop you visit has a store of them as if its their staple food."

Or if I have to say:

"it is so cold over there that rum is so easily available or commonly seen or prevalent everywhere inorder to withstand the cold."

Is there any single word or phrase or a better way to convey that something is very commonly available or seen almost everywhere or easily prevailing ?

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54

Ubiquitous:

adjective

present, or seeming to be present, everywhere at the same time; omnipresent

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    The noun form is "ubiquity" by the way, as in "The ubiquity of potatoes makes them a staple food for that culture".
    – Doktor J
    Commented Jun 30, 2017 at 13:56
  • Please provide a link to your quotation, otherwise, despite its popularity, your answer may be deleted as a "Low Quality Post". And don't respond to me — I'm only the messenger.
    – David
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 12:41
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Commonplace seems a good fit.

commonplace adjective

​ happening often or often seen or experienced and so not considered to be special:

Electric cars are increasingly commonplace.

[CED]

synonyms include widespread, prevalent [Thesaurus.com]

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    Please consider your “answer”, and perhaps this question itself, in light of this post from one of Stack Exchange’s Community Managers (an employee) on Single word requests, crosswords, and the fight against mediocrity. You might also consider our Help Center’s directions on how to reference material written by others in posts that should be mainly your own words rather than copypasta.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 2:01
  • @tchrist I'm very willing to delete this answer. As you know, I rarely give simplistic answers anywhere other than 'comments'; I judged this to be borderline. But if you're going to be consistent across the site, you should be removing, not just recommending for deletion, a good many questions and answers. Ask me to delete and I will. / There seems little more to say in this 'answer'. This is true with many if not most SWRs.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 10:16
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I would suggest abundant.

existing or available in large quantities; plentiful.

As you can see, the definition from Oxford Dictionaries shows that abundant encompasses what you want to say in one word. It is applicable to "things" like potatoes and gives the impression that they are found everywhere.

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Another option is omnipresent:

omnipresent

ADJECTIVE

  1. Widely or constantly encountered; widespread.
    ‘the omnipresent threat of natural disasters’

The noun form would be omnipresence.

Of course, widespread (from the definition) might work as well. (Though I'm not sure what the noun form of that would be.)

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    Not exactly wrong, but omnipresent is more often used for abstractions than objects like potatoes. "The omnipresent religious influence..." "Omnipresent fears of a stock market crash" etc
    – barbecue
    Commented Jul 1, 2017 at 14:56
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    Omnipresent potatos would make sense if you were expl-ining their presence in every dish in a cuisine, though that's approaching potato as concept i suppose.
    – Weaver
    Commented Jul 1, 2017 at 15:55
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The phrase "readily available" comes to mind.

I had an example I was going to write, but then I said the words too many times in my head and now it sounds wrong. :(

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  • About semantic satiation - don't worry. Just cite some examples from the net. ODO usually provides a selection to accompany its entries.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Jun 30, 2017 at 23:42
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The previously provided Ubiquitous is the best general answer, but in some cases you may want to imply that a thing is not only commonplace, but can't be avoided, to the extent that it becomes humorous or even annoying.

In this case you could say that the thing is obligatory. This is often used to indicate that the item's presence is so strong that it's almost as if it were required by law.

"As we dined while traveled through the region, the obligatory potatoes began to pall..." "the obligatory XKCD comic..."

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  • Can't be avoided = unavoidable. Synonyms: inescapable, inevitable.
    – Keith McClary
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 4:11
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Glut, as defined by Lexico:

  1. an excessively abundant supply of something. "there is a glut of cars on the market"
    synonyms: surplus, excess, surfeit, superfluity, overabundance, superabundance, oversupply, plethora
    "a glut of cars"
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For non-food items, you can use "ten a penny" in British English, or its US English equivalent "a dime a dozen" to indicate that something is readily, and cheaply available.

be two/ten a penny UK (US be a dime a dozen)

: to be very common

​

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If the subject is extremely common, "like water" fits:

informal : in large amounts - He spends money like water.

So, in the context of your examples, "potatoes are like water in that place" and "it's so cold over there, rum flows like water" (or "...they drink rum like water").

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    I think this is only for specific things (such as drinks) rather than everything. 'Potatoes are like water' doesn't immediately conjure images of plentiful supply, rather really unappealing potatoes.
    – marcellothearcane
    Commented Jul 1, 2017 at 9:04
  • This fits for basically everything you can consume.
    – Mazura
    Commented Jul 7, 2017 at 3:56

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