Words / C2

PROFL-ig-uh-t/ˈprɒflɪɡət/

Profligate means recklessly wasteful with money or resources: profligate spending, a profligate use of paper. Wasteful is everyday; extravagant is close; spendthrift is a noun/adjective for a person. Profligacy is the noun. Formal, disapproving. Older English also used profligate of a dissolute life. In speech, recklessly wasteful is enough. Profligate is scale and carelessness, not a treat you planned and could afford. Do not use it for a well-costed investment you happen to oppose.

Meaning

Recklessly wasteful with money or resources.

Examples

• “Profligate spending emptied the budget.”
• “Profligate spending emptied the budget before Easter.”
• “A profligate print run of unread booklets is not “visibility”; it is waste.”

Good to know

Recklessly wasteful (formal, disapproving). Everyday: wasteful. Close: extravagant. Noun: profligacy. Also (older): dissolute. Contrast: a planned, affordable outlay.

Near in meaning

wasteful

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