Standard Lemma guide

spendy

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈspɛndi/
  • [ˈspɛndɪi̯]
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • /ˈspɪndi/
  • pin-pen-merger: [ˈspɪ̟ndɪi̯]

1

adj

Meaning 1

Expensive, costly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: British-Columbia, US

Qualifier: especially Upper Midwestern US and Northwestern US

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: pricey, spenny, steep, 5-star, big-ticket, chargeful, cheap at half the price, costful, costly, cost-prohibitive, fancy, dear, dearthful, dispendious, ex, expenny, expensive, exy, high-cost, lickpenny, million-dollar, high-priced, princely, out of sight, overdear, ruinous, spendy, spenno, splurgy

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h1éǵh Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h1éǵhs Proto-Italic *eks Latin ex Latin ex- Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- Proto-Indo-European *(s)péndeti Proto-Italic *pendō Latin pendō Latin expendōbor. Proto-West Germanic *spendōn Old English spendan Middle English spenden English spend Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English spendy From spend + -y.