luxury

From Middle English luxurie, from Old French luxurie, from Latin luxuria (“rankness, luxury”), from luxus (“extravagance, luxury”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlʌk.ʃə.ɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlʌɡʒəɹi/, /ˈlʌkʃəɹi/

• Audio (US):

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luxury (countable and uncountable, plural luxuries)

1. Very wealthy and comfortable surroundings.
2. Something desirable but expensive.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “ […] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […] ”

3. Something that is pleasant but not necessary in life.
   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

     As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard. The train is a '221'+'220' combo to allow for social distancing - a luxury on an XC train as normally you're playing sardines, so I make the most of it.

4. (obsolete) Lustfulness; sexual desire or attraction.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 51, column 2:

     Fie on sinnefull phantasie: Fie on Lust, and Luxurie:

5. (obsolete) Copulation; the act or action of sex.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 258, column 1:

     Let not the Royall Bed of Denmark be / A Couch for Luxury and damned Incest.

• luxe

• (antonym(s) of “dispensable thing”): necessity

luxury (comparative more luxury, superlative most luxury)

1. Very expensive.
2. Not essential but desirable and enjoyable and indulgent.
3. (automotive) Pertaining to the top-end market segment for mass production mass market vehicles, above the premium market segment.

(automotive):

• premium
• economy

• luxe
• luxuriant
• luxuriate
• luxurious
• luxuriously

• “luxury”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “luxury”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

luxury

1. Alternative form of luxurie