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Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective penurious contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of penurious are close, miserly, niggardly, parsimonious, and stingy. While all these words mean "being unwilling or showing unwillingness to share with others," penurious implies niggardliness that gives an appearance of actual poverty.

the penurious eccentric bequeathed a fortune

Where would close be a reasonable alternative to penurious?

While the synonyms close and penurious are close in meaning, close suggests keeping a tight grip on one's money and possessions.

folks who are very close when charity calls

When might miserly be a better fit than penurious?

While in some cases nearly identical to penurious, miserly suggests a sordid avariciousness and a morbid pleasure in hoarding.

a miserly couple devoid of social conscience

When is it sensible to use niggardly instead of penurious?

Although the words niggardly and penurious have much in common, niggardly implies giving or spending the very smallest amount possible.

the niggardly amount budgeted for the town library

In what contexts can parsimonious take the place of penurious?

The words parsimonious and penurious can be used in similar contexts, but parsimonious suggests a frugality so extreme as to lead to stinginess.

a parsimonious lifestyle notably lacking in luxuries

When can stingy be used instead of penurious?

The meanings of stingy and penurious largely overlap; however, stingy implies a marked lack of generosity.

a stingy child, not given to sharing

Examples Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of penurious There are resentful relatives, penurious relatives, conniving relatives, no relatives, and loved ones denied input because they are not related. Dan Barry, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024 The book looks beyond Appalachia, concluding the regions in question had been exploited by single industries and white elites, paying poor wages with equally penurious working conditions. Ken Silverstein, Forbes, 13 Aug. 2023 When his sports career petered out, Thorpe kept hustling to make an increasingly penurious living. Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 4 Aug. 2022 Her father had left high school at 14 to support his penurious mother and work as a delivery boy in a cotton trading company. New York Times, 20 Apr. 2022 See all Example Sentences for penurious 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for penurious
Adjective
  • Warm feelings fueled by the wonder and kindness of the season, inspired by the transformative and timeless experiences of Ebenezer Scrooge who changed from a selfish, penny-pinching grouch, into a generous, happy and altruistic person.
    Eric C. Shuster, Austin American-Statesman, 6 Dec. 2024
  • The high price for Yoon’s selfish martial law debacle will be paid over time, in installments, by South Korea’s 51 million people.
    William Pesek, Forbes, 6 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • In Delhi, impoverished kids are learning to love reading and math, thanks to a police officer’s makeshift school.
    Shefali Rafiq, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Dec. 2024
  • Assad’s fall ends more than six decades of Baath Party rule that sought to center Syria as a leader in the Arab world, but instead left it corruption-riddled and impoverished.
    Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • For most financial institutions, though, instant change isn’t always a selling point, as sensitive customer data cannot move between servers and networks without careful and methodical oversight.
    Forbes, Forbes, 3 Dec. 2024
  • The cost of the fire hasn’t just been financial – the careful cleaning and restoration has stolen some of the mystical gloom and charm that visitors will remember.
    Joseph Ataman, CNN, 30 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • Baby is a poor sleeper, so the mother has to tend to him day and night while also running the household.
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 13 Dec. 2024
  • That being said, today was a very poor outing as breadth (advancers vs. decliners) was awful in both markets.
    Brendan Ahern, Forbes, 13 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • Help the needy, not the greedy, as a wise man once argued.
    Henry Olsen, National Review, 21 Nov. 2024
  • His skin, a greedy shade of brown, seems to eat up all the light.
    Essence, Essence, 5 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • The movie’s protagonist, Frida (Naomi Ackie), is a broke cater waiter and nail artist who sneaks into the VIP section of an event she’s been working, only to trip on her heels and fall flat on her face.
    Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 6 Dec. 2024
  • Cuban himself ran side hustles, got fired from multiple jobs and nearly went broke on his path to becoming a billionaire.
    Megan Sauer, CNBC, 3 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • This is the problem with the show: These women are just concocting reasons why the people on the other side suck, and it’s become the most uncharitable, the most ungenerous thing on Bravo.
    Brian Moylan, Vulture, 15 July 2024
  • While the initial batch of second-quarter earnings reports has been met by generally ungenerous market responses, the numbers themselves are solid.
    Michael Santoli, CNBC, 20 July 2024
Adjective
  • Even the Kremlin’s own human rights council had denounced the charges as unwarranted, adding its voice to a chorus of support for Prokopyeva in what became a battle of wills between an impecunious local reporter and Russia’s powerful security apparatus.
    Andrew Higgins, BostonGlobe.com, 6 July 2020
  • His half-Danish father, Prince Andrew, second in line to the Greek throne, was sentenced to death after the army was defeated in Smyrna by the Turks, saved only by the intervention of George V. In 1930, after eight years of impecunious exile in Paris, the family dispersed.
    Moira Hodgson, WSJ, 4 Dec. 2020

Thesaurus Entries Near penurious

Cite this Entry

“Penurious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/penurious. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024.

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