What does miser mean?
A miser is someone who hoards money and values keeping wealth more than enjoying it or using it to help others. The word is commonly critical, suggesting that a miser is not merely careful with money but excessively stingy, selfish, or obsessed with accumulating it. In everyday use, it usually refers to a person whose reluctance to spend makes others feel exploited or excluded. The term can also describe someone who saves so obsessively that ordinary comfort and generosity become secondary. “Miser” is especially familiar from descriptions of fictional money-hoarders, but it remains a normal English noun in journalism, literature, and conversation. The related adjective “miserly” is often more convenient when the focus is on conduct, while “miser” emphasizes the person characterized by that conduct.
nounA miser is a person who hoards money and enjoys having wealth rather than spending it. The term can also refer more generally to someone regarded as excessively mean or unwilling to share resources.
- A person who accumulates and hoards money, often at the expense of comfort or generosity.
- A person regarded as excessively stingy or unwilling to share money or resources.
- A person who has a strong and sometimes obsessive attachment to money or material possessions.
"His miserly habits made it impossible for him to enjoy the money he had saved."
"The miser counted his coins every evening before locking them away."
"Her employer was a miser who refused to replace the office heating."
The plural is used for more than one person characterized by miserly behavior.
"The two misers argued over the smallest expense."
The word that now means a greedy hoarder began with the Latin miser, meaning unfortunate or wretched.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does miser come from?
The word comes through French from Latin miser, originally meaning unfortunate, unhappy, or wretched. The sense developed through the idea of someone being in a miserable condition because of poverty or lack of resources, and eventually came to denote a person who is miserly or hoards wealth. Its relatives include miserable, misery, commiserate, and misfortune.
Related word forms
How miser is actually used
Usually critical or disapproving. It is primarily a noun and is stronger and more openly judgmental than the adjective miserly; in literary contexts it can evoke a person who is obsessive, humorless, or isolated by unwillingness to spend.
Easily confused with miser
A miser is a person who hoards money, whereas misère names a card game and the card-game convention of losing all tricks.