Definition

1. Noun:
   • Extreme stinginess; excessive frugality: The quality of being extremely unwilling to spend money or use resources, often to an unreasonable degree.
   • Extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily: The practice of being very cautious and restrained with expenditures.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • His parsimoniousness meant the office never had new supplies. (His extreme stinginess meant the office never had new supplies.)
  • The project's failure was attributed to the founder's parsimoniousness with the budget. (The project's failure was attributed to the founder's extreme reluctance to spend money.)
  • She was known for her parsimoniousness, reusing tea bags to save a few cents. (She was known for her excessive frugality, reusing tea bags to save a few cents.)

Advanced Usage

• "The parsimoniousness of...": Used to describe the extreme frugality characteristic of a person, institution, or policy.
  • The parsimoniousness of the administration led to cuts in essential services.
• As a character trait: Often used in formal or critical contexts to describe a negative quality of excessive thrift.
  • His reputation for parsimoniousness made him unpopular with his staff.

Variants and Related Words

• Parsimonious (adj): Characterized by or showing parsimoniousness; stingy.
  • He was too parsimonious to donate to the charity.
• Parsimony (n): Often used interchangeably with , especially in formal writing. It can also mean simplicity in scientific theories.
  • The principle of parsimony favors the simplest explanation.

Synonyms

• Stinginess: Unwillingness to spend money.
• Miserliness: Extreme greed for wealth, often manifested as stinginess.
• Frugality (can be neutral or positive, unlike which is typically negative): The quality of being economical with resources.
• Penny-pinching: Informal term for extreme reluctance to spend money.
• Tightfistedness: Informal term for being stingy.

Antonyms

• Generosity: The quality of being kind and generous.
• Lavishness: The quality of spending or giving in great amounts.
• Prodigality: Extravagant wastefulness.
• Munificence: The quality of being very generous.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Penny-wise and pound-foolish: An idiom describing someone who is careful about small amounts of money () but wasteful with large sums. This concept is closely related to the negative implications of .
  • His parsimoniousness with office supplies was penny-wise, but his poor investment was pound-foolish.

Noun

1. extreme stinginess
2. extreme care in spending money; reluctance to spend money unnecessarily