prodigal

1. 1.

   a recklessly extravagant consumer

   Synonymsprofligatesquanderer

   Broaderconsumer

   Narrowerspendthriftwastrel

1. 1.

   recklessly wasteful

   “prodigal in their expenditures”

   Synonymsextravagantprofligatespendthrift

   Similarwasteful

Other forms of prodigal

plural

prodigals·

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 prodigal

What does prodigal mean?

prodigal means "a recklessly extravagant consumer". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in prodigal?

prodigal has 3 syllables: pro-di-gal. The stress falls on "pro". In IPA it is /ˈpɹɑdɪɡəl/.

What is another word for prodigal?

Close synonyms include profligate, squanderer, extravagant, profligate, spendthrift. 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 prodigal a common word?

prodigal is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.