Extravagant

How to spell extravagant

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce extravagant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does extravagant mean?

1. adjectiveSpending much more than is necessary or reasonable, or excessive in a way that lacks restraint.

Extravagant in a sentence

• The wedding budget grew more extravagant with every new guest added to the list.

• He made an extravagant promise to double everyone's salary by the end of the year.

Where does extravagant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Medieval Latin extravagantem, the present participle of extravagari, which literally meant 'to wander outside' or 'to stray beyond' a boundary. It was built from the Latin extra, meaning 'outside' or 'beyond', and vagari, meaning 'to wander or roam', the same root that gives us 'vagrant' and 'vague'. The term first had a surprisingly technical life in church law, where extravagantes described papal decrees that 'wandered outside' the official collections of canon law. English borrowed it through Old French in the late 1300s, and the sense gradually shifted from straying beyond limits in general to overstepping the bounds of moderation, especially in spending. The spelling holds onto its origins neatly: the 'extra' beginning and the wandering 'vag' middle both survive, though the unstressed 'a' in extrav-A-gant and the -ant ending are where careful spellers must take care.

How the word is built

• extra- (beyond)
• vag (from Latin vagari, to wander)
• -ant (adjective suffix)