largesse

noun lar·gesse \ lär-ˈzhes , lär-ˈjes also ˈlär-ˌjes \

variants: or less commonly largess

|Updated on: 17 Aug 2018

Examples: largesse in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of largesse

1 : liberal giving (as of money) to or as if to an inferior

a philanthropist known for his largesse

; also : something so given

projects depending on a flow of federal largesse

2 : generosity

his generosity of spirit, an absolutely natural largesse
—Harvey Breit

See largesse defined for English-language learners

See largesse defined for kids

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Examples of largesse in a Sentence

He relied on the largesse of friends after he lost his job.

Recent Examples of largesse from the Web

The bag could contain anything—a lucky gift of largesse, a biro, an apron, chilli sauce, a copy of next month’s gossip magazine.

— a.a. gill, A-LIST, "Fraught, But It Counts," 4 July 2018
Jordan can no longer count on Gulf largesse, like a $5bn grant offered in the first days of the Arab Spring in 2011.

— The Economist, "Jordan’s King Abdullah tries to calm an angry public," 6 June 2018
Leonard is eligible for a five-year, $219 million extension this offseason, a largesse only the Spurs can offer him.

— jeff mcdonald, San Antonio Express-News, "Spurs aim to hang onto Leonard — for now," 22 June 2018
Some Palestinians fear that this American largesse could depend on Jordan eventually revoking their status as refugees.

— The Economist, "The UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians is running out of cash," 21 June 2018
In fact, the biggest beneficiary of Starbucks’s largesse was Arizona State University.

— sarah jones, The New Republic, "Howard Schultz’s Third Way," 6 June 2018
Offering the high-end variants of the Model 3 now means buyers waiting for the $35,000 car are less likely to benefit from the government’s largesse.

— jack stewart, WIRED, "Tesla Expands Its Model 3 Offerings—At a Steep Price," 21 May 2018
Trump scolded leaders here and criticized some countries, including Germany and Spain, for failing to contribute more to their defenses and for relying too heavily on the largesse of the United States.

— author: michael birnbaum, philip rucker, Anchorage Daily News, "Trump demands immediate spending increases by NATO nations or he will ‘do his own thing’," 12 July 2018
But Harris assailed Pittenger’s vote for a March spending bill that ended a brief government shutdown, saying Pittenger wasn’t working to get spending under control and sent Trump a bill the president criticized for its largesse.

— Washington Post, "N Carolina GOP congressman is first incumbent to lose seat," 9 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'largesse.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

The word largesse, which also can be spelled "largess" (as in our second example sentence), has been part of the English language since at least the 13th century. It derives via Anglo-French from the Latin word largus, meaning "abundant" or "generous." "Largus" is also the source of our word large. As far back as the 14th century, we used the word largeness as a synonym of "largesse" ("liberal giving"). In fact, that may have been the first sense of "largeness," which has since come to refer to physical magnitude and bulk more often than to magnanimity.