frugal
Americanadjective
-
economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful.
What your office needs is a frugal manager who can save you money without resorting to painful cutbacks.
- Antonyms:
- profligate, prodigal, spendthrift, extravagant, wasteful
-
entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty.
a frugal meal.
adjective
-
practising economy; living without waste; thrifty
-
not costly; meagre
Related Words
Frugal, economical, thrifty imply careful and saving use of resources. Frugal emphasizes being saving, sometimes excessively saving, especially in such matters as food or dress: frugal almost to the point of being stingy. Economical implies prudent planning in the disposition of resources so as to avoid unnecessary waste or expense: economical in budgeting household expenditures. Thrifty is a stronger word than economical and adds to it the idea of industry and successful management: a thrifty shopper looking for bargains.
Other Word Forms
- frugality noun
- frugally adverb
- frugalness noun
- nonfrugal adjective
- nonfrugalness noun
- overfrugal adjective
- unfrugal adjective
- unfrugalness noun
Etymology
Origin of frugal
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin frūgālis “economical,” derivative of the indeclinable adjective frūgī (dative singular of frūx “produce, fruit”) + -ālis adjective suffix; fruit, -al 1
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.
The result is a set of tools including real-time transcription—called Adalat AI—that is frugal in how much computer power it requires.
It’s a good fit for a frugal moment, with farmer incomes this year projected to come in 24% below their 2022 peak.
From Barron's
Instead, he and his fiancée had to be “a little more frugal” when looking for homes in 2024.
From MarketWatch
Because in terms of spending alone, this window was by no means frugal.
From BBC
After spending more than £1.1bn since 2023, new regulations announced by the country's ministry of sport in July 2025 means clubs have switched to a more frugal and financially sustainable model.
From BBC
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.
