Profound means deep in a way that really matters. When something is profound, it affects how you think or feel about important things. A profound idea changes the way you see the world, like realizing for the first time that your parents were once kids too, with dreams and worries just like yours.

A profound book makes you think long after you've finished reading it. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches were profound because they expressed truths about justice and humanity that still echo today. A profound conversation with a grandparent might help you understand something about life that you'd never considered before.

The word can also mean very deep in a literal sense. The Mariana Trench is the most profound part of the ocean, plunging nearly seven miles down. But more commonly, people use profound to describe ideas, insights, or experiences that reach deep into what matters most.

Sometimes people say something is profoundly true or profoundly moving, meaning it affects them at a level beyond surface reactions. When a scientist makes a profound discovery, it doesn't just add a small fact to what we know. It transforms our understanding in ways that ripple outward, changing how we see everything else.