paltry

1. 1.

   not worth considering

   “he considered the prize too paltry for the lives it must cost”

   “piffling efforts”

   “a trifling matter”

   Synonymsnegligibletrifling

   Similarworthless
2. 2.

   contemptibly small in amount

   “a measly tip”

   “the company donated a miserable $100 for flood relief”

   “a paltry wage”

   “almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans”

   Synonymsmeaslymiserable

   Similarmeager

Other forms of paltry

comparative or superlative

paltrier

comparative or superlative

paltriest

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about paltry

What does paltry mean?

paltry means "not worth considering". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in paltry?

paltry has 2 syllables: pal-try. The stress falls on "pal". In IPA it is /ˈpɔltɹi/.

What is another word for paltry?

Close synonyms include negligible, trifling, measly, miserable. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is paltry a common word?

paltry is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.