economical

[ek-uh-nom-i-kuhl, ee-kuh-]

adjective

1. avoiding waste or extravagance; thrifty.

   an economical meal; an economical use of interior space.

   Synonyms: parsimonious, sparing, provident, saving
   Antonyms: profligate, prodigal, spendthrift, extravagant, wasteful

2. economic.

economical

/ ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪkəl, ˌɛkə- /

adjective

1. using the minimum required; not wasteful of time, effort, resources, etc

   an economical car

   an economical style

2. frugal; thrifty

   she was economical by nature

3. a variant of economic economic economic economic

4. euphemistic,  deliberately withholding information (esp in the phrase economical with the truth )

Other Word Forms

• noneconomical adjective
• noneconomically adverb
• preeconomical adjective
• preeconomically adverb
• pseudoeconomical adjective
• pseudoeconomically adverb
• quasi-economical adjective
• quasi-economically adverb
• uneconomical adjective
• uneconomically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of economical¹

First recorded in 1570–80; economic + -al ¹

Synonym Study

See frugal.

Example Sentences

"My grandfather's generation was very frugal, very thrifty. It is part of Chinese tradition. For Chinese people to be economical is in their bones," she says.

Read more on BBC

Driverless freight trains could make it economical to use shorter trains on shorter routes.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Small language models, they wrote, are “sufficiently powerful, inherently more suitable, and necessarily more economical” for such work.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Here, too, as in most of his plays, which feature small casts, Mr. Hunter shares with Beckett the impulse to distill—to create potent, meaningful drama from the most economical means.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Hollywood studios have for years been moving their productions to states and countries outside of California in pursuit of government subsidies that make filmmaking more economical.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• cost-effective 
• efficient 
• practical 
• prudent