profligacy
Americannoun
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shameless dissoluteness.
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reckless extravagance.
-
great abundance.
Etymology
Origin of profligacy
First recorded in 1730–40; proflig(ate) + -acy
Explanation
If your life is built on the search for reckless, sensual pleasure with no thought of possible consequences, then you are living a life of profligacy, and probably spending a lot of money to get it. How wasteful! The idea of a loose, dissipated life, is seen in the noun profligacy, which comes from the Latin prōflīgātus, meaning "corrupt or dissolute." It's been said Americans live in a state of profligacy with regard to petroleum use, wasting it in the manufacture of everything from water bottles to nail polish to traffic cones. Someday this profligacy will catch up to us, however. With rising gasoline prices, perhaps it already has!
Vocabulary lists containing profligacy
Power Suffix: -acy
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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.
Profligacy, as well as mental fragility, was a work-on, as they say.
From BBC • Feb. 7, 2026
Profligacy ebbed and flowed with the economic and political tides.
From BusinessWeek • Mar. 31, 2011
Profligacy was arguably their only annoyance on Saturday, when Wolves might have been dismissed by a cricket score, only for Wayne Hennessey's excellence to maintain the visitors' vague interest.
From The Guardian • Feb. 14, 2011
Profligacy and public inefficiency had little to do with it.
From The Guardian • Mar. 21, 2010
Profligacy and legislation equally divided his enthusiasm between them, and proved him to be not only the most daring politician, but the most debauched citizen in France.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 by Various
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.
