Wealthiest

How to spell wealthiest

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce wealthiest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wealthiest mean?

1. adjectiveHaving the greatest amount of money, property, or valuable possessions of any in a group.

Wealthiest in a sentence

• The wealthiest residents in the city tend to cluster in a few exclusive postcodes.

• That family was once the wealthiest in the entire county.

Where does wealthiest come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on 'wealth', which grew from the Old English 'wela', meaning 'well-being', 'prosperity', or 'happiness', closely tied to the word 'weal' that still survives in phrases like 'the common weal'. In Middle English the noun gained the ending '-th', on the same pattern that turned 'heal' into 'health', and its sense narrowed from general welfare toward an abundance of money and possessions. The adjective 'wealthy' was then formed by adding '-y', and 'wealthiest' is simply its superlative, marking the very top of the scale of riches. Because the base ends in '-y', the spelling follows the regular English rule of changing the 'y' to 'i' before '-est', which is exactly where writers can slip. The deeper link to 'well' and 'weal' is a useful reminder that the start of the word is 'weal', not 'wel'.

How the word is built

• wealth (well-being, riches; from Old English wela 'prosperity')
• -i- (from -y adjective)
• -est (superlative suffix)