frugality

noun

fru·​gal·​i·​ty frü-ˈga-lə-tē 

: the quality or state of being frugal : careful management of material resources and especially money : thrift

For these renters, the philosophy is more about having it all … than it is about hardship or frugality.

—Roya Wolverson

The conference table, like all the company's desks, is made of a door bolted to two-by-fours, a deliberate message of frugality to employees of a company that is losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

—Saul Hansell

Synonyms of frugality

• economy
• saving
• thrift
• parsimony

Examples of frugality in a Sentence

her lifelong frugality has enabled her to save enough money to go to college next year

Recent Examples on the Web

On a call with reporters Monday, Wu defended the frugality of her FY27 spending plan amid calls for an audit of city and BPS spending by two city councilors. —Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald, 6 Apr. 2026

Are Flaubert and Beckett writers who felt terror about having children, and then sublimated this frugality into the discipline of their literary work? —Aaron Matz, The New York Review of Books, 4 Apr. 2026

Unfortunately, that’s the cost of frugality, something that will certainly be the hallmark of Sullivan’s first crack at free agency as GM. —Miami Herald, 4 Mar. 2026

Off-mountain Activities Vintage Shopping Ketchum has a treasure trove of vintage and second-hand shops, thanks to a culture of quiet luxury that prizes quality, taste, and frugality. —Denny Lee, Travel + Leisure, 16 Feb. 2026

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French frugalité, borrowed from Latin frūgālitāt-, frūgālitās "steadiness of life, temperance, self-restraint," from frūgāl-, base of frūgālior and frūgālissimus, comparative and superlative degrees of frūgī "having merit or worth, deserving, sober, thrifty" + -itāt-, -itās -ity — more at frugal

First Known Use

1531, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for frugality

• banality
• bestiality
• brutality
• carnality
• centrality
• chirality
• duality
• fatality
• finality
• formality
• legality
• lethality