Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Wasteful |
WastefulAdjective1. Inefficient in use of time and effort and materials; "a clumsy and wasteful process"; "wasteful duplication of effort"; "uneconomical ebb and flow of power". 2. Tending to squander and waste. 3. Laying waste; "when wasteful war shall statues overturn"- Shakespeare. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "wasteful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1595. (references) |
Synonym: WastefulSynonym: uneconomical (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: thrifty (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Prodigality | Adjective: prodigal, profuse, thriftless, unthrifty, improvident, wasteful, losel, extravagant, lavish, dissipated, overliberal; full-handed; (liberal). |
Waste | Wasteful; (prodigal); penny wise and pound foolish. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Wasteful |
| English words defined with "wasteful": boondoggle ♦ extravagant, extravagantly ♦ inefficient, Infrugal ♦ lavishly, Losel ♦ prodigal, prodigally, profligate ♦ Slatter, spendthrift, Spoilful, squandering ♦ uneconomic, uneconomical ♦ wastefully. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "wasteful": busy-wait ♦ LL ♦ Noctuas Athenas Ferre ♦ splitting method. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Charles Darwin | What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature! |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Extensive diagnostic studies (CT, MRI and nuclear scans) are not indicated, are economically wasteful, and should not be performed in staging asymptomatic patients. (references) | |
Business | Energy is an expensive commodity, and the inefficient use of energy resources is costly and wasteful. (references) | |
Though this may be optimistic for power suppliers, inefficient use of energy resources is very wasteful. (references) | ||
Economic History | Burma | Wasteful consumption and expensive capital outlays with dubious returns have added to inflationary pressures (i.e., lots of money chasing after a limited supply of goods and services, fueling price rises). (references) |
Political Economy | MALAYSIA | To qualify for the lower ad valorem MFN tariff rate of 30 percent levied on non-rectangular float glass, exporters often must resort to time-consuming, wasteful procedures such as cutting off one or more corners or cutting one edge in a slanted fashion. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | Hence when there are extravagant and wasteful appropriations there must be a corresponding increase of taxes, and the people, becoming awakened, will necessarily scrutinize the character of measures which thus increase their burdens. |
John F. Kennedy | 1961-1963 | This applies to the military confrontation between the Warsaw Pact and NATO countries as well as to other situations in other parts of the world where tensions lead to the wasteful diversion of resources to weapons of war. |
Lyndon B. Johnson | 1963-1969 | Even in the absence of agreement, we must not stockpile arms beyond our needs or seek an excess of military power that could be provocative as well as wasteful. |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | Now we must make the good programs more effective and improve or weed out those which are wasteful or unnecessary. |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | As Governor, I found this line-item veto was a powerful tool against wasteful or extravagant spending. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Wasteful" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.65% of the time. "Wasteful" is used about 288 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.65% | 287 | 17,188 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.35% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 288 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "wasteful": wasteful person. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "wasteful": less-wasteful. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
government spending wasteful | 5 |
american wasteful | 3 |
wasteful | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "wasteful"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | shkapërdar (prodigal, waster), prishës (breaker, cankerous, derogatory, wrecker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مسرف (extravagant, improvident, intemperate, ladle, lavish, loud, prodigal, profligate, profuse, thriftless, towering, ultra, wanton), مدمر (destructive, devastating, subversive, withering), مبذر (extravagant, lavish, prodigal, profligate, profuse, spendthrift, squanderer, thriftless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | разточителен (extravagant, improvident, lavish, luxurious, prodigal, profligate, profuse, spendthrift, sumptuous, superfluous, thriftless, uneconomic, unsparing, unthrifty, wanton), разорителен (ruinous), прахоснически (prodigal, profligate, squanderingly, thriftless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 費 (expenses, fee, to cost, to spend), 侈 (exaggerating, extravagant), 大手大脚. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | zbyteèný (false, futile, good for nothing, gratuitous, needless, senseless, unnecessary, useless, wasted), nehospodárný (thriftless, uneconomical, unthrifty), marnotratný (extravagant, lavish, luxurious, prodigal), marný (fruitless, futile, hopeless, unsuccessful, useless, vain). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | متلف (Prodigal), مصرف (Consumption, Disposal, Expenditure, Use, Utilizable, Utilization, Waster), ولخرج (Prodigal, Profligate, Spendthrift), افراطکار (Intemperate), بی فایده (Useless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | tuhlaavainen (extravagant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | ravageur (wasting), gaspilleur (wastrel), gâcheur (wasteful person), dépensier (waster, wastrel). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | verschwenderisch (extravagant, lavish, lavishly, luxuriantly, luxurious, prodigal, spendthrift, sumptuous, sumptuously, superfluous, superfluously, thriftlessly, uneconomical, unsparing, unsparingly, unstintingly, unthriftily, unthrifty, wastfully), unwirtschaftlich (uneconomic, uneconomical), unnütz (idle, pointless, unprofitable, unprofitably, useless, valueless), aufwendig (costly, expendable, expensive, extravagant, lavish, ornate). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | σπάταλοσ (improvident, prodigal, spendthrift, squanderer, thriftless, unstinted, waste, waster, wastrel), πολυδάπανοσ (costly, extravagant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | בזבז י (extravagant, improvident, lavish, prodigal), פס" (damaged, harmful, worthless). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | pazarló (lavish, lavisher, lavishing, prodigal, spendthrift, squanderer, squandering, thriftless, to go the pace, unsparing, unthrifty, waster, wasting, wastrel). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | boros (extravagant, improvident, lavish, loose, open-handed, prodigal). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | superfluo (needless, pointless, superfluous, uncalled for, unnecessary), dispendioso (costly, expensive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 物"無い (more than one deserves, sacrilegious, too good, unworthy of), 物"ない (more than one deserves, sacrilegious, too good, unworthy of), 勿"無い (more than one deserves, sacrilegious, too good, unworthy of), 勿"ない (more than one deserves, sacrilegious, too good, unworthy of). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | もったいない (more than one deserves, sacrilegious, too good, unworthy of). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 헛된 (vain). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | stroialtagh (big spender, destructive, prodigal, spendthrift), neuchairailagh (uncircumspect), jummaltagh (big spender, lavisher, lavishing, squanderer, waster), jeyllagh, jeeillagh (damaging, paying, productive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | astefulway sem vergonha (barefaced, impugn, lichen, profligate, profound, shameless, unashamed, unblushing, unscrupulous), muito extravagante (profligate), libertino (free thinker, lascivious, lecherous, liberty, lothario, Lovelace, playday, profligate, raffish, rake, rakish, rep, ribald, rioter, roue, salacious, wanton), imoral (drossy, filthy, gay, immoral, impure, obscene, profligate, vicious, wicked), devasso (bawdry, dissolute, free ticket, immoral, lecherous, lewd, libertine, loose, lothario, playboy, profligate, rakish, roue, salacious, wanton), depravado (abandoned, bestial, depraved, deviant, miscreant, profligate, raffish, rep, vicious, vile). (various references) risipitor (dissipated, extravagant, improvident, luxurious, prodigal, profligate, profuse, spender, spendthrift, squanderer, thriftless), inutil (addle, beside the purpose, bootless, effete, excrescent, fruitless, idle, nugatory, pathetic, pathetically, superfluous, unavailing, unfruitful, unnecessary, unprofitable, useless, uselessly, vain, worthless), cheltuitor (dissipated, extravagant, prodigal, profligate, profuse, spender, spendthrift, squanderer, thriftless, waster). (various references) расточительный (extravagant, improvident, lavish, prodigal, profligate, spendthrift, thriftless, unsparing, unthrifty), нерасчетливый (improvident). (various references) struidheil. (various references) rasipnički (spendthrift, uneconomical), rasipan (profuse, thriftless, wanton). (various references) malgastador. (various references) slösaktig (extravagant, improvident, lavish, profligate, spendthrift, squandering, uneconomical). (various references) zarar veren (nocuous), tutumsuz (improvident, prodigal, squander, thriftless, unthrifty), savurgan (consumptive, extravagant, inefficient, lavish, prodigal, profuse, thriftless, uneconomic, uneconomical, unthrifty), müsrif (consumptive, extravagant, improvident, inefficient, lavish, prodigal, profligate, profuse, spender, spendthrift, squander, squanderer, thriftless, unthrifty). (various references) спустошливий (ruinous, wasting), виснажливий (all out, back breaking, exhaustive, grueling, gruelling, killing, tiring, wasting, wearisome), неощадливий, марнотратний (expensive, extravagant, improvident, lavish, luxurious, pound-foolish, prodigal, profligate, spendthrift, unsparing), пустельний (desert, deserted, waste, wild). (various references) tốn phí, lãng phí (ill-spent, lavish), hoang phí (profuse, thriftless). (various references) gwastraffus (extravagant), distrywgar (destructive), difethgar, afradlon (abandoned, prodigal). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "wasteful": wastefully, wastefulness, wastefulnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Wasteful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: castlefuls. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "wasteful" (pronounced wā"stful) |
| 6 | -ā" s t f u l | distasteful, tasteful. |
| 5 | -s t f u l | boastful, distrustful, fistful, lustful, mistrustful, restful, wistful, zestful. |
| 4 | -t f u l | artful, deceitful, delightful, disrespectful, doubtful, eventful, fateful, fitful, forgetful, fretful, frightful, fruitful, grateful, hateful, hurtful, insightful, neglectful, regretful, resentful, respectful, rightful, spiteful, tactful, thoughtful, uneventful, ungrateful. |
| 3 | -f u l | apocryphal, awful, baffle, baleful, bashful, beautiful, blissful, bountiful, careful, cheerful, colorful, disdainful, disgraceful, doleful, dreadful, duffel, dutiful, faithful, falafel, fanciful, fearful, flavorful, forceful, gainful, gleeful, graceful, harmful, healthful, helpful, hopeful, houseful, joyful, kerfuffle, lawful, masterful, meaningful, merciful, mindful, mournful, muffle, needful, painful, panful, peaceful, pitiful, playful, plentiful, powerful, prayerful, purposeful, raffle, remorseful, reshuffle, resourceful, riffle, rifle, rueful, ruffle, scornful, scuffle, shameful, shuffle, sinful, skillful, sorrowful, soulful, stifle, stressful, successful, suspenseful, tearful, thankful, trifle, triumphal, truffle, truthful, tuneful, unfaithful, unhealthful, unhelpful, unlawful, unsuccessful, untruthful, useful, vengeful, waffle, watchful, willful, wishful, woeful, wonderful, worshipful, wrongful, youthful. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-f-l-s-t-u-w" | |
-1 letter: sulfate. | |
-2 letters: faults, festal, flatus, flutes, salute, waeful. | |
-3 letters: alefs, awful, false, fates, fault, feast, feats, felts, fetal, fetas, fetus, flats, flaws, fleas, flews, flues, flute, fuels, fusel, leafs, least, lefts, lutea, lutes, sault, saute, setal, slate, stale, steal, stela, sulfa, swale, sweat, taels, tales, talus, tawse, teals, tesla, tufas, tules, twaes, wafts. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-f-l-s-t-u-w" | |
+1 letter: awfullest. | |
+2 letters: wastefully. | |
+4 letters: wastefulness, watchfulness, wrathfulness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)57 61 73 74 65 66 75 6C |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .- ... - . ..-. ..- .-.. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010111 01100001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01100110 01110101 01101100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)W a s t e f u l |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0057 0061 0073 0074 0065 0066 0075 006C |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5767858671728778 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Quotations: Speeches 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Orthography 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
