impecunious
adjective
Did you know?
If impecunious means "penniless," then it stands to reason that "pecunious" can describe someone who has a lot of money. That is true, but "pecunious" is used with far less frequency in English than its opposite and is not found in many dictionaries. What's more, on the rare occasion when "pecunious" is put to use in English, it often means not "wealthy" but "miserly or ungenerous," as in "a pecunious attitude toward the less fortunate." "Impecunious" describes somebody who lacks the money to buy necessities, but it does not carry the connotation of desperation found in such words as "indigent" or "destitute." Both "pecunious" and "impecunious" derive via Middle English from the Latin pecunia, meaning "money."
Synonyms
- beggared
- beggarly
- broke
- destitute
- dirt-poor
- down-and-out
- famished
- hard up
- impoverished
- indigent
- necessitous
- needful
- needy
- pauperized
- penniless
- penurious
- poor
- poverty-stricken
- skint [chiefly British]
- threadbare
Example Sentences
Martin Fritz Huber, Outside Online, 11 Jan. 2021 Among them is the sardonic confidant, St. Quentin; the down-at-the-heels military man, Major Brutt; and the impecunious, high-living chancer, Eddie. Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021 Among them is the sardonic confidant, St. Quentin; the down-at-the-heels military man, Major Brutt; and the impecunious, high-living chancer, Eddie. Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021 Among them is the sardonic confidant, St. Quentin; the down-at-the-heels military man, Major Brutt; and the impecunious, high-living chancer, Eddie. Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021 Among them is the sardonic confidant, St. Quentin; the down-at-the-heels military man, Major Brutt; and the impecunious, high-living chancer, Eddie. Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021 Among them is the sardonic confidant, St. Quentin; the down-at-the-heels military man, Major Brutt; and the impecunious, high-living chancer, Eddie. Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021 Among them is the sardonic confidant, St. Quentin; the down-at-the-heels military man, Major Brutt; and the impecunious, high-living chancer, Eddie. Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021 Dalton’s impassioned singing style — as if Billie Holiday took up residence in an impecunious Southern misfit — has made fans out a range of contemporaries, from the art-rock auteur Nick Cave to the harpist Joanna Newsom. Washington Post, 1 Oct. 2021 See More Word History
in- entry 1 + obsolete English pecunious rich, from Middle English, from Latin pecuniosus, from pecunia money — more at fee
1596, in the meaning defined above
impecunious
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- impoverished
- poor
- penurious
- broke
- penniless
- beggared
- indigent
- needy
- necessitous
- bankrupt
- pauperized
- destitute
- famished
- needful
- deprived
- bankrupted
- hard up
- skint
- beggarly
- depressed
- dirt-poor
- poverty-stricken
- threadbare
- disadvantaged
- down-and-out
- underprivileged
- dispossessed
- distressed
- ruined
- out of pocket
- out at elbows
- down on one's luck
- out at the elbows
- insolvent
- unaffluent
- reduced
- poorish
- straitened
- hardscrabble
- pinched
- bust
- busted
- short
- cash-strapped
- low
- possessionless
- hand-to-mouth
- tapped out
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- wealthy
- affluent
- rich
- moneyed
- monied
- opulent
- fat
- well-to-do
- well-heeled
- prosperous
- flush
- well-off
- comfortable
- deep-pocketed
- silk-stocking
- fat-cat