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paltry

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
11
Words With Friends
12
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ˈpɒltɹi/(UK)
See all 5 pronunciations
/ˈpɒltɹi/(UK) · /ˈpɔːltɹi/(UK) · /ˈpɔltɹi/(US) · /ˈpɑltɹi/(US) · /ˈpɔltɹi/

Definition of paltry

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Trashy, trivial, of little value.
    “This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.”
    “She made some paltry excuse and left.”
    “There are a great many languages, like Eskimo and Nootka and, aside from paltry exceptions, the Semitic languages, that cannot compound radical elements.”
See all 3 definitions

adj

  1. Trashy, trivial, of little value.
    “This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.”
    “She made some paltry excuse and left.”
    “There are a great many languages, like Eskimo and Nootka and, aside from paltry exceptions, the Semitic languages, that cannot compound radical elements.”
  2. Of little monetary worth.
    “Could someone hope to survive on such a paltry income?”
    “Student grants these days are paltry, and many students have to take out loans.”
    “As for those Samnites, and the men of Uz, That bought my Spanish oils and wines of Greece, Here have I purs'd their paltry silverlings. Fie, what a trouble 'tis to count this trash!”
    “Meanwhile, the trade deal has left Britain’s fishing communities screaming betrayal, unhappy with their paltry gains and facing expensive barriers to export what they have caught.”
  3. Despicable; contemptibly unimportant.
    “a paltry coward”
    “"An aged man is but a paltry thing, / A tattered coat upon a stick"”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle Low German paltrig (“ragged, rubbishy, worthless”), from palter, palte (“cloth, rag, shred”), from Old Saxon *paltro, *palto (“cloth, rag”), from Proto-Germanic *paltrô, *paltô (“scrap, rag, patch”). Of uncertain…

See full etymology

From Middle Low German paltrig (“ragged, rubbishy, worthless”), from palter, palte (“cloth, rag, shred”), from Old Saxon *paltro, *palto (“cloth, rag”), from Proto-Germanic *paltrô, *paltô (“scrap, rag, patch”). Of uncertain ultimate origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *polto- (“cloth”), see also Proto-Slavic *poltьno (“linen”). Cognate with Low German palterig (“ragged, torn”), dialectal German palterig (“paltry”). Compare also Low German palte (“rag”), West Frisian palt (“rag”), Saterland Frisian Palte (“strip; band; tape”), dialectal German Palter (“rag”), Danish pjalt (“rag, tatter”), Swedish palta (“rag”). See also palterly and pelting.

Anagrams of paltry

2 plays · all valid Scrabble

Best play partly 11 points

Words you can make from paltry

54 playable · top: PARTLY (11 pts)

Best play partly 11 points

6-letter words

1 word

5-letter words

6 words

4-letter words

14 words

3-letter words

24 words

2-letter words

8 words

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