Luxuries

How to spell luxuries

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce luxuries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does luxuries mean?

1. nounExpensive comforts or pleasures that are not strictly necessary.

Luxuries in a sentence

• After the pay rise they could finally afford a few small luxuries.

• The budget hotel cut out the luxuries to keep its room rates low.

Where does luxuries come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin luxuria, which meant 'excess', 'extravagance', or even 'rankness' in the way overgrown plants run wild. That noun grew from luxus, meaning 'excess' or 'indulgence', a term that originally carried a faint sense of something straying or dislocating from its proper place. English took the word in through Old French luxurie during the 1300s, when it first leaned heavily on the idea of sinful self-indulgence rather than pleasant comfort. Over the following centuries the moral sting faded, and by the 1600s a luxury had become simply a costly comfort or pleasant indulgence rather than a vice. The same Latin root still surfaces in 'luxuriant', describing lush, abundant growth, a clue that the silent richness inside the spelling has always been about overflowing plenty.

How the word is built

• luxur- (from Latin luxuria: excess, indulgence)
• -ies (plural of nouns ending in -y)