frugality

noun

fru·​gal·​i·​ty frü-ˈga-lə-tē 

: the quality or state of being frugal : careful management of material resources and especially money : thrift

For these renters, the philosophy is more about having it all … than it is about hardship or frugality.

—Roya Wolverson

The conference table, like all the company's desks, is made of a door bolted to two-by-fours, a deliberate message of frugality to employees of a company that is losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

—Saul Hansell

Synonyms

• economy
• husbandry
• parsimony
• penny-pinching
• providence
• scrimping
• skimping
• thrift

Examples of frugality in a Sentence

her lifelong frugality has enabled her to save enough money to go to college next year

Recent Examples on the Web

The spread of frugality is hurting China’s economy Oct. 24, 2024 Despite trade talks over the next year, each country continued to impose more tariffs. —Stephanie Yang, Los Angeles Times, 10 Dec. 2024

Their period of frugality paid off: At age 28, Bellucci and her fiancé purchased a five-bedroom house built in the 1950s in Babylon, New York. —Madeline Bilis, Architectural Digest, 21 Nov. 2024

Xi is hoping that traditional forms of frugality and discipline of this sort can obviate the need for bottom-up political empowerment. —John Delury, Foreign Affairs, 7 Aug. 2013

Fans did not appreciate such frugality as the team spent most of the following season battling relegation. —Dermot Corrigan, The Athletic, 8 Aug. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French frugalité, borrowed from Latin frūgālitāt-, frūgālitās "steadiness of life, temperance, self-restraint," from frūgāl-, base of frūgālior and frūgālissimus, comparative and superlative degrees of frūgī "having merit or worth, deserving, sober, thrifty" + -itāt-, -itās -ity — more at frugal

First Known Use

1531, in the meaning defined above