prodigality

[ prod-i-gal-i-tee ]

noun

, plural prod·i·gal·i·ties

1. the quality or fact of being prodigal; wasteful extravagance in spending.
2. an instance of it.
3. lavish abundance.

Word History and Origins

Origin of prodigality¹

1300–50; Middle English prodigalite < Latin prōdigālitās wastefulness, equivalent to prōdig ( us ) extravagant + -āl ( is ) -al ¹ + -itās -ity

Example Sentences

Critics of the Build Back Better program aren’t willing to take lessons from this inexcusable prodigality.

From Los Angeles Times

In January, in an academic piece written with one of his Cato colleagues, Terence Kealey, he called her “the world’s greatest exponent today of public prodigality.”

From New York Times

With the prodigality that makes it unlike all other ballet troupes, it offers four different programs in this week alone, including nine works by Balanchine.

From New York Times

So the cumulative effect of the show is to emphasize the sense of protean excess and prodigality that defines almost everything Picasso did.

From Washington Post

And her most resourceful construction is the novel itself, a feat of narrative prodigality that staves off, word by word, the destruction of an entire community.

From The Guardian