Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

false economy

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.43 in modern English

Syllables: false e-con-o-my
IPA

22

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

4

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

An attempt to economize that fails because the less expensive approach is inferior in some way, or ultimately wastes more money than was saved.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"On the other hand, when money is saved and the efficiency of the school is injured, that is a false economy."
""If the suggestion is merely to delay the opening of Euston, then you may save some money in the very short term. But by delaying works, allowing more inflation to creep in, you will actually add to the overall cost. It would be a totally false economy.""

Usage

Inflected Forms

false economies (plural)

Phrases

buy cheap, buy twice good work ain't cheap, cheap work ain't good if you pay bananas, you get monkeys if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys you buy cheap, you get cheap you get what you pay for

Frequently Paired Words

buy cheap, buy twice good work ain't cheap, cheap work ain't good if you pay bananas, you get monkeys if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys you buy cheap, you get cheap you get what you pay for

Questions

What does false economy mean?: An attempt to economize that fails because the less expensive approach is inferior in some way, or ultimately wastes more money than was saved.

How to pronounce false economy

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