What does miserly mean?
Word: Miserly
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Miserly means not willing to spend or share money. It can also describe an amount that is much smaller than it should be.
Synonyms: mean
How do you spell miserly?
Syllables: mi - ser - ly
Tricky part: The middle sound buzzes like a z, but the letter is s, so mizerly is wrong.
Watch out for: mizerly, misserly
Memory tip: Think of a bee trying to buzz its way into a locked money box: the owner keeps the z out and lets only a quiet s inside.
Miserly in a sentence
Example 1: In the fairy tale, the miserly king counted his gold every night but never bought new shoes.
Example 2: Our garden hose gave a miserly trickle of water when the tank was nearly empty.
Example 3: The miserly dragon in the story slept on its pile of gold and shared none of it.
Fun Fact
Many words ending in ly are adverbs, such as quickly and slowly, but this one is an adjective, like friendly and lovely.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
miserly
a) greedy
b) stingy
c) thrifty
d) generous
Show answer
d) generous. A generous person is happy to give and share, the very opposite of holding on to every coin.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
m_s_rly
a) i, e
b) i, a
c) e, e
d) y, e
Show answer
a) i, e. An i follows the m and an e comes before the r; any other pair gives a spelling that does not exist.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) mischevious
b) ambitious
c) miserly
d) courteous
Show answer
a) mischevious. Mischievous is said with three beats and has ie after the ch; there is no i before the ous.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The cafe gave us a miserly helping of chips. What does this tell you?
a) the plate was the biggest one in the cafe
b) the chips came with three kinds of sauce
c) the plate had very few chips on it
d) the chips were cooked very quickly
Show answer
c) the plate had very few chips on it
2. A miserly merchant in a story is most likely to ____.
a) hand out free fruit to children at his gate
b) throw a feast for the whole town every month
c) pay his workers extra at the end of each year
d) keep his coins locked away instead of spending them
Show answer
d) keep his coins locked away instead of spending them
