adjective
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showing thrift; economical or frugal
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rare thriving or prospering
Synonym Usage
See frugal.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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overthriftinessnoun
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thriftinessnoun
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unthriftinessnoun
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overthriftyadjective
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unthriftyadjective
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overthriftilyadverb
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thriftilyadverb
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unthriftilyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of thrifty
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English; see origin at thrift, -y 1
Explanation
Being thrifty means being careful of your money and how you spend it. Think twice before you spend, but if you must shop, hitting the sales and using coupons are good ways to be thrifty. Note the similarity between the adjective thrifty and the verb thrive, and you'll realize that being careful with your money might be an important survival tactic. Everyone worries about having enough — look at how thrift shops have become important sources of clothing and other goods for many people, allowing them to buy without spending a fortune. Being thrifty is a solid virtue, as suggested by the old German proverb, "Prudent men woo thrifty women."
Vocabulary lists containing thrifty
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "T"
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"The Necklace" and "The Fashion Show"
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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.
See Examples For:
The Wall Street Journal spoke to thrifty soccer admirers about how they made their World Cup dreams a reality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Fairly early in his lengthy investment career, in the mid-1960s, this thrifty son of Yorkshire, England, grew besotted with speculative small-cap stocks.
From Barron's ● Dec. 31, 2025
Here are some other thrifty gifting tips from experts:
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 19, 2025
It’s thrifty, smart, and impossibly good — a dish that proves you don’t need much more than salt, acid, and time to make something sing.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2025
In mid-September, Joe returned from the Grand Coulee with enough money to make it through another year if he was thrifty.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
While affluent Americans are getting thriftier on essentials, they are still spending on extras like wellness and travel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026
But new survey data show that baby boomers — America’s richest generation and one often perceived as being thriftier those that followed — are more wasteful in certain spending categories than younger people.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026
“Price hikes are accelerating particularly in food items, and household sentiment may turn more thriftier in coming months,” said Takumi Tsunoda, senior economist at Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute.
From Reuters ● Oct. 7, 2022
They’re instead enjoying thriftier activities like hiking and gardening.
From New York Times ● Aug. 22, 2022
On the contrary, these thriftier settlers meant to keep whatever they had once grasped.
From The Winning of the West, Volume 3 The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 by Roosevelt, Theodore
United already was one of the thriftiest spenders in MLS, and the latest belt-tightening left Olsen squeezing all he could out of a depleted roster.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 16, 2020
The typical savings rate of the thriftiest cohort — aged 65 to 69 — topped out at 7.5 percent in 2005.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2015
San Francisco Bay Area water users — some with no lawns —were among the thriftiest, using around 70 gallons of water per person per day.
From US News ● Apr. 2, 2015
Overnight I became the thriftiest person you’ve ever met—bar those people who split their toilet paper in half.
From Forbes ● Sep. 10, 2014
Sixty-five per cent. of France's population is rural, and France is prosperous, and her people are the thriftiest and most saving in the world.
From The Canadian Commonwealth by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)
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.
