profligacy
/ˈpɹɑflɪɡəsi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.20 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "No question has arisen within the records of history that pressed with the importance of the present.[…]whether man shall inherit his rights, and universal civilisation take place? Whether the fruits of his labours shall be enjoyed by himself or consumed by the profligacy of governments?"
- "She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill."
- "Villa spent most of the second period probing from wide areas and had a succession of corners but despite their profligacy they will be glad to overturn the 6-0 hammering they suffered at St James' Park in August following former boss Martin O'Neill's departure"
- "Outsiders who scoffed at this profligacy misunderstood the masquerade. Condé’s editors were the original influencers, their lives a top-to-bottom marketing campaign for the company that hired them."
- "He had, indeed, reduced several women to a state of utter profligacy, had broke the hearts of some, and had the honour of occasioning the violent death of one poor girl, who had either drowned herself, or, what was rather more probable, had been drowned by him."
- "Sir Robert bitterly reproached himself for having consigned his child to another, when he saw the effect of too early initiation into profligacy, or, as Francis called it, knowledge of the world."
Etymology
From proflig(ate) + -acy (with -acy a suffixal construction from -ate + -cy), from Latin prōflīgātus, past participle of Latin prōflīgō, from prō- (“forward”) + flīgō (“to strike, dash”) (whence pro-).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Prefix: prō-
- Root: prōflīgātus, prōflīgō
- Suffix: profligate, -ate
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɹɑflɪɡəsi/