different between munificent vs rich

English

Etymology

Back-formation from munificence, from Latin m?nificentia.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /mju?n?f?sn?t/

Adjective

munificent (comparative more munificent, superlative most munificent)

1. (of a person or group) Very liberal in giving or bestowing.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, ch. 30:

     Tellson's Bank . . . was a munificent house, and extended great liberality to old customers who had fallen from their high estate.

   • 1974 April 8, "Politics: Milkmen Skimming Off More Cream," Time (retrieved 5 Sept 2013):

     [M]ilk producers are among the most munificent backers of political campaigns in the U.S.

   • 2008 March 20, Martin Filler, "Broad-Minded Museum," New York Review of Books (retrieved 5 Sept 2013):

     An exceptionally munificent benefactor of several institutions, he has given $100 million each to MIT and Harvard.

2. (of a gift, donation, etc.) Very generous; lavish.
   • 1886, Louisa May Alcott, Jo's Boys, ch. 1:

     On the hill, where kites used to be flown, stood the fine college which Mr Laurence's munificent legacy had built.

   • 1914, William MacLeod Raine, A Daughter of the Dons, ch. 25:

     It was all very well for this casual youth to make her a present of a half million acres of land in this debonair way, but she could not persuade herself to accept so munificent a gift.

   • 1969 April 11, "Business: Up, Up and Away with Wages," Time (retrieved 5 Sept 2013):

     The machinists finally agreed to a munificent increase averaging 5.7% a year for three years.

Synonyms

• bounteous, generous, liberal

Derived terms

• munificently

Related terms

Translations

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin munificus, munificens (“liberal”), from munus (“gift”) + facio (“I make”).

Adjective

munificent (comparative munificenter, superlative munificentst)

1. generous

Inflection

Synonyms

• (generous): genereus, gul, goedgeefs, vrijgevig, royaal

Romanian

Etymology

From French munificent

Adjective

munificent m or n (feminine singular munificent?, masculine plural munificen?i, feminine and neuter plural munificente)

1. munificent

Declension

English

Etymology

From Middle English riche (“strong, powerful, rich”), from Old English r??e (“powerful, mighty, great, high-ranking, rich, wealthy, strong, potent”), from Proto-West Germanic *r?k?, from from Proto-Germanic *r?kijaz (“powerful, rich”), from Proto-Celtic *r?xs (“king”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?re?- (“to straighten, direct, make right”).

Cognate with Scots rik (“mighty, great, noble, rich”), Saterland Frisian riek (“rich”), West Frisian ryk (“rich”), Dutch rijk (“rich”), German reich (“rich”), Danish rig (“rich”), Icelandic ríkur (“rich”), Norwegian and Swedish rik (“rich”). The Middle English word was reinforced by Old French riche, borrowed from the same Proto-Germanic root.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t??/
• Hyphenation: rich
• Rhymes: -?t?

Adjective

rich (comparative richer, superlative richest)

1. Wealthy: having a lot of money and possessions.
2. Having an intense fatty or sugary flavour.
   • 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka (republished by Eland, 2019; p. 116):

     It is the richest food I have ever eaten, and for this reason I soon learned to partake of it sparingly.

   • 1709-1710, Thomas Baker, Reflections on Learning

     High sauces and rich spices are fetch'd from the Indies.

3. Plentiful, abounding, abundant, fulfilling.
   • 1707, Nicholas Rowe, The Royal Convert

     Tho' my Date of mortal Life be short, it shall be glorious; / Each minute shall be rich in some great action.
4. Yielding large returns; productive or fertile; fruitful.

5. Composed of valuable or costly materials or ingredients; procured at great outlay; highly valued; precious; sumptuous; costly.
6. Not faint or delicate; vivid.

7. (informal) Very amusing.

8. (informal) Ridiculous, absurd, outrageous, preposterous, especially in a galling, hypocritical, or brazen way.
   • 1858, William Brown (of Montreal), The Commercial Crisis: Its Cause and Cure (page 28)

     Now, if money be a marketable commodity like flour, as the Witness states, is it not rather a rich idea that of selling the use of a barrel of flour instead of the barrel of flour itself?
9. (computing) Elaborate, having complex formatting, multimedia, or depth of interaction.
   • 2003, Patricia Cardoza, Patricia DiGiacomo, Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

     Some rich text email messages contain formatting information that's best viewed with Microsoft Word.

   • 2008, Aaron Newman, Adam Steinberg, Jeremy Thomas, Enterprise 2.0 Implementation

     But what did matter was that the new web platform provided a rich experience.

10. Of a fuel-air mixture, having less air than is necessary to burn all of the fuel; less air- or oxygen- rich than necessary for a stoichiometric reaction.
11. (finance) Trading at a price level which is high relative to historical trends, a similar asset, or (for derivatives) a theoretical value.

Noun

rich pl (plural only)

1. (Plural) People with a lot of money or property

Synonyms

• (wealthy): wealthy, well off, see also Thesaurus:wealthy

Antonyms

• (wealthy): poor; see also Thesaurus:impoverished
• (plentiful): needy
• (computing): plain, unformatted, vanilla
• (fuel-air mixture): lean
• (financial markets): cheap

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

rich (third-person singular simple present riches, present participle riching, simple past and past participle riched)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To enrich.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To become rich.

References

• rich at OneLook Dictionary Search
• rich in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• chir-