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If impecunious means "penniless," then it stands to reason that "pecunious" can describe someone who has a lot of money. That is true, but "pecunious" is used with far less frequency in English than its opposite and is not found in many dictionaries. What's more, on the rare occasion when "pecunious" is put to use in English, it often means not "wealthy" but "miserly or ungenerous," as in "a pecunious attitude toward the less fortunate." "Impecunious" describes somebody who lacks the money to buy necessities, but it does not carry the connotation of desperation found in such words as "indigent" or "destitute." Both "pecunious" and "impecunious" derive via Middle English from the Latin pecunia, meaning "money."
Examples of impecunious in a Sentence
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
12 June 2026
Since then, it has been performed across much of the world, being ideally suited to these impecunious times and very masterfully written.
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Chris Jones,
Chicago Tribune,
13 Mar. 2026
Cowley graduated in 1920, and for a year and a half lived an adventurous, impecunious Grub Street life in New York, before a fellowship took him, now married, back to France for a master’s in French.
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Michael Gorra,
The Atlantic,
4 Nov. 2025
Lillian Feldman was born to impecunious Jewish emigres in Cincinnati on July 13, 1927, the twelfth of thirteen children who were encouraged by their mother to draw on the walls.
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News Desk,
Artforum,
17 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for impecunious
Cite this Entry
“Impecunious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impecunious. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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impecunious
adjective
