Luxury

How to spell luxury

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce luxury

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does luxury mean?

1. nounA state of great comfort and expense, or something pleasant and costly that is not essential.
2. adjectiveOf a high quality or expensive kind, designed for comfort and indulgence.

Luxury in a sentence

• noun

  After years of saving, they finally afforded a holiday in real luxury.

• adjective

  The dealership specialises in luxury cars with leather interiors.

• noun

  A hot bath at the end of a long shift felt like an unexpected luxury.

• adjective

  She booked a luxury suite for the anniversary weekend.

Where does luxury come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin luxus, which meant 'excess' or 'extravagance', and its derivative luxuria, meaning 'rankness', 'overgrowth', or 'self-indulgence'. English took it through Old French luxurie in the 1300s, and for several centuries it carried a strongly negative, even sinful flavour, often pointing to lust and lasciviousness rather than mere comfort. Over time the moral charge faded, and by the 1600s the word had softened into the modern sense of pleasant, costly comfort beyond what is strictly needed. The same Latin root survives in 'luxuriant', used for plants that grow lavishly thick. The spelling trap sits in the middle: that single 'x' standing in for a 'ksh' sound, followed by the unstressed '-ury' ending, which writers sometimes flatten into '-ery'.

How the word is built

• luxur- (from Latin luxuria: excess, extravagance)
• -y (noun suffix)