prodigal
wastefully extravagant with money or resources
Word origin: From Latin prodigere, to drive forth or squander.
Prodigal in a sentence
Here are example sentences showing prodigal in a sentence.
His prodigal spending soon exhausted the family fortune.
His prodigal spending on equipment exhausted the grant within a single semester.
Using “prodigal” well
Prodigal means recklessly wasteful, not, as some assume, simply wandering or returning. Do not confuse it with prodigious, which means enormous.
More GRE words starting with P
to calm or soothe someone who is angry or agitated
a song or expression of joyful praise or triumph
done with careful and thorough effort
agreeable to the taste or acceptable to the mind
resembling a palace in size or grandeur
rebirth, regeneration, or renewal into a new existence
to ease the severity of something without curing it
pale or lacking vitality and color
Questions about “prodigal”
Learn words the way the GRE tests them.
Vocabulary sticks when you meet it in real sentences. Practise these words inside text completion and sentence equivalence questions.