largesse
Americannoun
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generous bestowal of gifts.
Corporate sponsors can keep entire festivals and arenas alive with their largesse, so they need to be strategic about their giving.
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a generous gift or gifts, such as of money.
With the largesse received from these donors, the hospital has been able to purchase two new MRI machines.
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generosity; liberality.
He's a man of remarkable largesse of mind, heart, and soul.
noun
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the generous bestowal of gifts, favours, or money
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the things so bestowed
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generosity of spirit or attitude
Etymology
Origin of largesse
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English largesse, from Old French; cf. large, -ice
Explanation
Largesse is extreme generosity. If your neighbors bring you an expensive watch from Switzerland because you fed their cat while they were traveling, thank them for their largesse. Though pronounced "lar JESS," the word largesse looks sort of like largeness. That's an easy way to remember what largesse means: think of it as largeness of spirit. Largesse can describe the generosity of someone giving gifts, or it can describe the gift itself. You could dispense largess by buying your brother a dinner at a fancy restaurant for helping you out.
Vocabulary lists containing largesse
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 8–13
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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.
“The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” consists of five stories, three of which have never appeared in print, and weighs in at just over 200 pages.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 4, 2018
“The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” consists of five stories, three of which have never before appeared in print, and weighs in at just over 200 pages.
From Washington Post • Jan. 21, 2018
“The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” picks up, to a large extent, where “Jesus’ Son” left off.
From New York Times • Jan. 15, 2018
Now comes “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden,” a posthumous collection of his later short fiction, which shows similar men, grown older, often contemplating mortality.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 13, 2018
And the rabble cried "Largesse, largesse!" and horsemen galloped forth, casting among them nuts enveloped in silver-leaf and apples and comfits and trinkets and brass farthings in incredible quantities.
From The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales by Garnett, Richard
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.
