Definition of prosperous adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

prosperous

adjective

/ˈprɒspərəs/

/ˈprɑːspərəs/

(formal)

rich and successful synonym affluent
- prosperous countries
- Farmers are more prosperous in the south of the country.
Synonyms rich
richwealthy ▪ prosperous ▪ affluent ▪ well off ▪ comfortableThese words all describe somebody/something that has a lot of money, property or valuable possessions.rich (of a person) having a lot of money, property or valuable possessions; (of a country or city) producing a lot of wealth so that many of its people can live at a high standardwealthy rich rich or wealthy?There is no real difference in meaning between these two words. Both are very frequent, but rich is more frequent and can be used in some fixed phrases where wealthy cannot: He’s stinking/filthy wealthy. • It’s a favourite resort for the wealthy and famous.
prosperous (rather formal) rich and successfulaffluent (rather formal) rich and with a good standard of living:
affluent Western countries
prosperous or affluent?Both prosperous and affluent are used to talk about people and places. Prosperous is used much more than affluent to talk about times and periods. Affluent is often used to contrast rich people or societies with poor ones. Being prosperous is nearly always seen as a good thing: It’s good to see you looking so prosperous. • It’s good to see you looking so affluent.
well off (often used in negative sentences) rich:
His family is not very well off.
The opposite of well off is badly off, but this is not very frequent; it is more common to say that somebody is not well off.comfortable having enough money to buy what you want without worrying about the cost:
They’re not millionaires, but they’re certainly very comfortable.
Patterns
- a(n) rich/wealthy/prosperous/affluent/well-off family
- a rich/wealthy/prosperous/well-off man/woman
- a(n) rich/wealthy/prosperous/affluent country/city
Extra Examples
- this once prosperous region
- He lives in the relatively prosperous city of New Delhi, in India.
- The 1960s were prosperous years for the company.
- These countries became prosperous through trade, not aid.
Topics Successc1
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
verbs
- be
- seem
- become
- …
adverb
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
See full entry
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French prospereus, from Latin prosperus ‘doing well’.

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Nearby words

influence

verb

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OPAL spoken words

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