Skip to content
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

profligate

/ˈpɹɑːflɪɡət/

Press play to hear how to pronounce profligate.

American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
Watch on YouTube ↗

What does profligate mean?

adjective

  1. Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.
  2. Immoral; abandoned to vice.

noun

  1. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
More meanings (3)

noun

  1. An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.

verb

  1. (obsolete) To drive away; to overcome.
  2. (obsolete) Obsolete form of profligated (past participle of profligate): profligated: routed, overcome, driven away.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈpɹɑːflɪɡət/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other dictionary pronunciations

/ˈpɹɑːflɪɡeɪt/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

We have seen that the intemperate suffer from a high rate of mortality, and the extremely profligate leave few offspring.
Charles DarwinThe Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to SexProject Gutenberg ebook #2300
Afterwards he indulged recklessly and extravagantly in every course of licentiousness which the profligate society of the day opened to him.
Andrew SteinmetzThe Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)Project Gutenberg ebook #466
More book examples (2)
Man has too long forgotten that the earth was given to him for usufruct alone, not for consumption, still less for profligate waste.
George P. (George Perkins) MarshThe Earth as Modified by Human ActionProject Gutenberg ebook #6019
One whose sex morals have been of the most conventional kind, a loyal husband, suddenly becomes a profligate, reckless and debauched, perhaps even perverted.
Abraham MyersonThe Foundations of PersonalityProject Gutenberg ebook #1575