impecunious
Americanadjective
adjective
Synonym Usage
See poor.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of impecunious
First recorded in 1590–1600; im- 2 + obsolete pecunious “wealthy,” from Latin pecūniōsus, equivalent to pecūni(a) “wealth” + -ōsus -ous
Explanation
If you are hard up, broke, penniless, or strapped for cash, you could describe yourself as impecunious. Then maybe you could make some money teaching vocabulary words. Impecunious comes from the old Latin word for money, pecunia, combined with the prefix im, meaning not or without. But impecunious doesn’t just mean having no money. It means that you almost never have any money. If you go into the arts, you are most likely facing an impecunious future. If you gamble away your cash instead of saving it for rent, your landlord might throw you out for being impecunious.
Vocabulary lists containing impecunious
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "I"
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Broke-abulary: Synonyms for "Poor"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And how many in the author’s crowd have done their part to restore civilization by moving into co-housing units, spaces typically reserved for impecunious 20-somethings?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Fans and players relatively unscathed, the pyramid structure affirmed, the current season’s integrity retained, clubs in trouble helped and the 14’s own playing staff not raided by clubs so impecunious they need their own goldmine.”
From The Guardian ● Apr. 22, 2021
He wrote in a Nobel biography that he grew up in an environment of “secure but impecunious Midwestern academics.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2020
And the tales still told of talented but impecunious riders scrapping their way to the Classic on the back of some gifted nag discovered in a barnyard seem more than ever like myth.
From New York Times ● Aug. 31, 2019
She had no understanding of her husband’s work and, having been raised among the minor rural gentry, she despised his impecunious profession.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
