Prosperity

How to spell prosperity

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce prosperity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does prosperity mean?

1. nounA state of thriving success, especially through wealth and good fortune.

Prosperity in a sentence

• The new trade deal brought a decade of prosperity to the region.

• Years of careful saving laid the foundation for their family's prosperity.

Where does prosperity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin prosperitas, meaning 'good fortune' or 'success', which was built on the adjective prosper, 'doing well' or 'favourable'. Many scholars connect prosper to an older phrase pro spe, literally 'according to hope', so the original idea was things turning out as one had hoped. English took the word in during the 1300s through Old French prosperite, and it has always carried the sense of thriving, especially in wealth and good fortune. The verb 'prosper' and the adjective 'prosperous' share the same root, so they reinforce the spelling of the central 'sper'. The trap for writers is the unstressed middle: the word is built on 'sper', not 'sper-i' as a doubled vowel, and the ending is the regular -ity rather than -aty.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• sper (hope)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a state)