meager

adjective

mea·​ger ˈmē-gər How to pronounce meager (audio)
variants or meagre
Synonyms of meager
1
: having little flesh : thin
… meager were his looks, sharp misery had worn him to the bones …—William Shakespeare
2
a
: lacking desirable qualities (such as richness or strength)
leading a meager life
b
: deficient in quality or quantity
a meager diet
meagerly adverb
meagerness noun

Synonyms of meager

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meager, scanty, scant, skimpy, spare, sparse mean falling short of what is normal, necessary, or desirable.

meager implies the absence of elements, qualities, or numbers necessary to a thing's richness, substance, or potency.

a meager portion of meat

scanty stresses insufficiency in amount, quantity, or extent.

supplies too scanty to last the winter

scant suggests a falling short of what is desired or desirable rather than of what is essential.

in January the daylight hours are scant

skimpy usually suggests niggardliness or penury as the cause of the deficiency.

tacky housing developments on skimpy lots

spare may suggest a slight falling short of adequacy or merely an absence of superfluity.

a spare, concise style of writing

sparse implies a thin scattering of units.

a sparse population

Examples of meager in a Sentence

Every morning he eats a meager breakfast of toast and coffee. We'll have to do the best we can with this year's meager harvest. She came to this country with a fairly meager English vocabulary, but she is learning more words every day. They suffered through several meager years at the beginning of their marriage. Although she's now rich and famous, she remembers her meager beginnings as a child from a poor family.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, could not read or write and often supplemented the family's meager income from their farm by working construction jobs. — Corky Siemaszko, NBC news, 25 Aug. 2026 Although People of Color make up roughly 40 percent of the United States population, National Park Service (NPS) comprehensive visitor surveys have consistently shown that Black visitors comprise a meager 1 to 2 percent of total park attendance. — Kimmie Gordon, Chicago Tribune, 22 Aug. 2026 New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order in July to pause for up to one year permits for new data centers that are at least 50 megawatts — a meager amount by today’s AI standards. — Bloomberg, Mercury News, 20 Aug. 2026 Kyrgios had a meager 1-4 record in the 2025 season, losing a first-round match in the Australian Open then skipping the next three Grand Slams. — ABC News, 19 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for meager

Word History

Etymology

Middle English megre "thin, having little flesh from lack of food," borrowed from Anglo-French megre, maigre, going back to Latin macr-, macer "thin, lean, of little substance," going back to Indo-European *mh2ḱ-ro- "long, thin," whence also Germanic *magra- "lean" (whence Old English mæger "lean," Old High German magar, Old Norse magr), Greek makrós "long, tall, high, large"; derivative in *-ro-, adjective suffix, of a base *meh2ḱ-, *mh2ḱ- seen also in Latin maciēs "bodily thinness, wasting," Greek mêkos "length," mḗkistos "longest, highest," Avestan masah- "length, greatness," masišta- "highest," Hittite maklant- "thin, slim (of animals)"

Note: Alternatively from Indo-European *maḱ- if a is accepted as a vowel, as the laryngeal h2 is invoked solely to produce the right vocalism.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of meager was in the 14th century

Rhymes for meager

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Browse Nearby Words

meadowy
meager
meager lime
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Cite this Entry

“Meager.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meager. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Kids Definition

meager

adjective
mea·​ger
variants or meagre
ˈmē-gər How to pronounce meager (audio)
1
: having little flesh : thin
2
a
: lacking desirable qualities (as richness or strength)
led a meager life
b
: deficient in quality or quantity
a meager serving of meat
meagerly adverb
meagerness noun
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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