1.
stinginess; miserliness; extreme frugality
The quality of being excessively reluctant to spend money or share resources. A literary and somewhat formal word with strongly negative connotations.
彼の吝嗇ぶりは有名だ。
His stinginess is well known.
吝嗇な性格のせいで友人を失った。
He lost friends because of his miserly character.
節約と吝嗇は紙一重で、度が過ぎると周りの人に不快な思いをさせてしま���。
Thrift and miserliness are separated by a fine line, and when taken too far, it makes the people around you uncomfortable.
A literary, somewhat old-fashioned word for extreme stinginess. The na-adjective form 吝嗇な is used to describe miserly people or behavior. While 節約 (economizing) is positive and 倹約 (frugality) is neutral to positive, 吝嗇 is unambiguously negative, implying selfishness and pettiness.
The alternate reading けち is colloquial and far more common in everyday speech, written in hiragana or as ケチ in katakana.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 吝嗇な人: a miserly person
- 吝嗇な性格: a stingy personality
- 吝嗇ぶり: one's stinginess; miserly ways
- 吝嗇家: a miser
SIMILAR WORDS:
- ケチ: stingy; cheap — the everyday colloquial equivalent
- 倹約: frugality; thrift — neutral to positive, implies wise spending
- 節約: economizing; saving — positive, implies cutting unnecessary expenses
- 守銭奴: miser; money-grubber — strongly negative, emphasizing obsession with money