well-to-do

[wel-tuh-doo]

adjective

1. prosperous; rich.

   Synonyms: moneyed, affluent, comfortable

well-to-do

adjective

1. moderately wealthy

Word History and Origins

Origin of well-to-do¹

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

Like the U.S. broadly, rich people are keeping the party going in New York, and powering a burgeoning local economy that caters to the well-to-do.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The son of an architect who grew up in the well-to-do Chicago suburb of Prospect Heights, Kirk attended a community college near Chicago before dropping out to devote himself to political activism.

Read more on BBC

Peggy’s family, the Scotts, are a well-to-do pillar of Brooklyn’s Black community headed by a formerly enslaved man who became a pharmacist and built his upper-middle-class family’s wealth from the ground up.

Read more on Salon

"We need a system that ensures access for the poor and prevents misuse by the well-to-do."

Read more on BBC

Under the current system, the president says, judges routinely spring organized crime figures, tax cheats and other well-to-do criminals, while impunity for murder and other crimes is the norm.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• affluent 
• moneyed 
• prosperous 
• wealthy