Word of the Day Archive
Friday September 20, 2002
munificent \myoo-NIF-i-suhnt\
, adjective:
Very liberal in giving or bestowing; very generous; lavish.
Another munificent friend has given me the most splendid reclining chair conceivable.
-- George Eliot, Letters
The fleeting movement of air inside the black tunnel before and after the passage of a train made it a source of refreshment more munificent than a roaring window air conditioner.
-- Norma Field, From My Grandmother's Bedside: Sketches of Postwar Tokyo
John Sr.'s paycheck, while hardly munificent, was steady, and frugality did the rest.
-- Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind
Munificent is from Latin munificus, "generous, bountiful," from munus, "gift." The quality of being munificent is munificence.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for munificent
