luxurious
Americanadjective
-
characterized by luxury; ministering or conducive to luxury.
a luxurious hotel.
- Antonyms:
- squalid
-
given to or loving luxury; wanting or requiring what is choice, expensive, or the like.
a person with luxurious tastes.
- Synonyms:
- epicurean
-
given to pleasure, especially of the senses; voluptuous.
- Synonyms:
- self-indulgent, sensual
-
present or occurring in great abundance, rich profusion, etc.; opulent.
a luxurious harvest; music of luxurious beauty.
-
excessively ornate; overelaborate.
luxurious prose.
adjective
-
characterized by luxury
-
enjoying or devoted to luxury
-
an archaic word for lecherous
Usage
Luxurious is sometimes wrongly used where luxuriant is meant: he had a luxuriant (not luxurious ) moustache; the walls were covered with a luxuriant growth of wisteria
Other Word Forms
- luxuriously adverb
- luxuriousness noun
- overluxurious adjective
- overluxuriously adverb
- overluxuriousness noun
- preluxurious adjective
- preluxuriously adverb
- preluxuriousness noun
- quasi-luxurious adjective
- quasi-luxuriously adverb
- superluxurious adjective
- superluxuriously adverb
- superluxuriousness noun
- unluxurious adjective
- unluxuriously adverb
Etymology
Origin of luxurious
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English word from Latin word luxuriōsus. See luxury, -ous
Explanation
The adjective luxurious describes something that is of very high quality or expensive taste, like your luxurious living room filled with the softest rugs and gorgeous furniture hand-crafted in Italy. In the 14th century, luxurious didn't mean what it does today; it meant "lascivious, lecherous, unchaste." What happened? The invention of bling for one thing, and the rise of a culture that celebrates material pleasures. Today, luxurious translates as exclusive, comfortable, expensive and superior in quality, like a luxurious home featured in a magazine about rich people and their favorite things.
Vocabulary lists containing luxurious
Tuck Everlasting
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This Week in Pop Culture: March 2 - 8, 2019
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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.
A six-minute egg is soft, custardy, a little luxurious — something you eat with toast, standing at the counter, yolk pooling gold across the plate.
From Salon • Apr. 3, 2026
Millions of Angelenos flock to the newest, most luxurious and financially-aggressive pseudosciences in the name of health.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026
Photos circulated of Malpica toasting his appointments with bottles of Dom Pérignon at a nightclub on the luxurious Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026
His father Gyozo Orban, who is 85, owns several building material companies as well as the historic Hatvanpuszta estate he had rebuilt into a luxurious manor worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026
Her first-floor séance parlor was luxurious: thick carpets, figured silk curtains, and rosewood armchairs.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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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.