profligate
/ˈpɹɑːflɪɡət/adjective, noun
profligate is spelled P-R-O-F-L-I-G-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is prolifigate: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 118 of all searches for the word. Profligate is an adjective meaning “Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly”.
How many letters and syllables are in profligate?
| Letters | 10: P-R-O-F-L-I-G-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 61,481st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, prolifigate, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell profligate?
Profligate is spelled P-R-O-F-L-I-G-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 118 of the searches for profligate in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is profligate?
Profligate appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 61,481st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce profligate?
- UK /ˈpɹɒflɪɡət/
- US /ˈpɹɑːflɪɡət/
As a verb (“To drive away; to overcome”): /ˈpɹɒflɪɡeɪt/, /ˈpɹɑːflɪɡeɪt/.
Profligate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-profligate-adj.ogg, En-us-profligate-v.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of profligate
- more profligate comparative
- most profligate superlative
- profligates plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- profligating participle, present
- profligated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does profligate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.
- 2
Immoral; abandoned to vice.
- 3
Overthrown, ruined.
noun
- 1
An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
- 2
An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo drive away; to overcome.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Profligate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | dépensier |
| German | verschwenderisch |
| Spanish | disoluto , inmoral |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does profligate come from?
The adjective is first attested in 1535, the verb in 1542; borrowed from Latin prōflīgātus, perfect passive participle of prōflīgō (“to strike down, cast down”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 an 3) and pro-), from prō- (“forward”) + flīgō (“to strike, dash”) + -ō (1st conjugation compound verb-forming suffix). Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).