miserly
/ˈmaɪ.zə(ɹ).li/US/ˈmaɪ.zəɹli/
miserly adjective: like a miser, very or objectionably cautious with money.
Adjective
miserly (comparative more miserly, superlative most miserly)
- Like a miser, very or objectionably cautious with money.
- miserly habits
- miserly offer
- Synonyms:
- as tight as Dick's hatband, cheap, cheeseparing, chintzy, close, close as wax, close-fisted, illiberal, mean, miserable
miserly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
miserly in Hindi
- stingy
- कंजूस kañjūs
miserly in Tamil
- உலோபி, ஒறு
miserly in Marathi
- miserly, penurious, niggardly
- दरिद्री daridrī
miserly in Urdu
- stingy
- کنجوس kañjūs
More languagesFewer languages
- miserly in Bengali
- কিপটা kipṭa, হাড়কিপটা haṛkipṭa, কৃপণ kripôn
- miserly in Malayalam
- പിശുക്കുപിടിച്ച, പിശുക്കനായ, അതിക്ഷുദ്ര, വളരെ ലുബ്ധുള്ള
- miserly in Odia
- ରେଫ repha
- miserly in Arabic
- بَخِيل baḵīl
- miserly in Persian
- خسیس xasis
- miserly in Vietnamese
- bo bo như thần giữ của
Examples of miserly in a sentence
- He had a miserly attitude toward spending money.
- They lived under miserly conditions despite their wealth.
- In some ways he's just like the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew.1991, Art Spiegelman, Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, New York: Pantheon Books, page 131:
- What could be more selfish, more miserly—this in specific is what gnaws at him—than dying childless, terminating the line, subtracting oneself from the great work of generation?2005, J. M. Coetzee, “Three”, in Slow Man, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 20:
Synonyms of miserly
20 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of miserly
| comparative | more miserly |
|---|---|
| superlative | most miserly |
Origin of miserly
From miser + -ly, attested from the 1540s.
Words formed from miserly
Questions about miserly
- What does miserly mean?
- Miserly means like a miser, very or objectionably cautious with money.
- What is miserly in Hindi?
- Miserly in Hindi is कंजूस (kañjūs). See Miserly meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use miserly in a sentence?
- He had a miserly attitude toward spending money.
- What part of speech is miserly?
- Miserly is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce miserly?
- Miserly is pronounced /ˈmaɪ.zə(ɹ).li/ (UK).
Words near miserly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: miserly (page history and authors); miserly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); दरिद्री (Marathi) (page history and authors); কিপটা (Bengali) (page history and authors); miserly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ରେଫ (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-miserly.wav.
Cite this entry: “miserly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/miserly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.