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

The Void of Azuzel was originally designed to punish prodigality, avarice’s mirror image, and vanity, pride reflected back on itself.

From Slate

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

“What a human downfall after the magnificence and prodigality of the World’s Fair which had so recently closed its doors! Heights of splendor, pride, exaltation in one month: depths of wretchedness, suffering, hunger, cold, in the next.”

From Literature

Nothing is too small: “The inside of a bean pod, shaped to the bean and furred like the inside of a violin case, has always seemed to me an instance of the prodigality of nature, a thing that is beautiful in itself and suited to its function.”

From New York Times