rich

See also Rich

English

Etymology

From Middle English riche (“strong, powerful, rich”), from Old English rīċe (“powerful, mighty, great, high-ranking, rich, wealthy, strong, potent”), from Proto-Germanic *rīkijaz (“powerful, rich”), probably from Proto-Celtic *rīgos (“of a ruler or king”, genitive case), from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to straighten, direct, make right”). Cognate with West Frisian ryk (“rich”), Dutch rijk (“rich”), German reich (“rich”), Danish rig (“rich”), Icelandic ríkur (“rich”). The Middle English word was reinforced by Old French riche, from the same Proto-Germanic root.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɹɪtʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtʃ

Adjective

rich (comparative richer, superlative richest)

1. Wealthy: having a lot of money and possessions.
   • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19: 

     In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. […]

2. Having a fatty, intense flavour.
3. Plentiful, abounding, abundant, fulfilling
4. (informal) Very amusing.
5. (informal) Ridiculous, absurd.
6. Used to form adjectives when combined with common nouns for things considered desirable in the context. The resulting adjectives usually mean "abounding in (common noun)".
7. (computing) Elaborate, having complex formatting, multimedia, or depth of interaction.
   • 2002, David Austerberry, The Technology of Video and Audio Streaming

     A skilled multimedia developer will have no problems adding interactive video and audio into existing rich media web pages.

   • 2003, Patricia Cardoza, Patricia DiGiacomo, Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

     Some rich text email messages contain formatting information that's best viewed with Microsoft Word.

   • 2008, Aaron Newman, Adam Steinberg, Jeremy Thomas, Enterprise 2.0 Implementation

     But what did matter was that the new web platform provided a rich experience.

8. Of a fuel-air mixture, having less air than is necessary to burn all of the fuel; less air- or oxygen- rich than necessary for a stoichiometric reaction.

Synonyms

• (wealthy): wealthy, well off, see also Wikisaurus:wealthy

Antonyms

• (wealthy): poor; see also Wikisaurus:impoverished
• (plentiful): needy
• (computing): plain, unformatted, vanilla
• (fuel-air mixture) lean

Derived terms

Terms derived from rich

filthy rich get-rich-quick hood rich neutron-rich nickel-rich nigger rich

too rich for one's blood rags to riches richdom riches richly rich media

richness rich tea biscuit rich text strike it rich superrich

Related terms

• nouveau riche

Translations

having wealth

• Afrikaans: ryk (af)
• Arabic: غني (ar) (ġanī)
• Armenian: հարուստ (hy) (harust)
• Azeri: zəngin (az)
• Belarusian: багаты (be) (baháty)
• Breton: pinvidik (br)
• Bulgarian: богат (bg) (bogát)
• Catalan: ric
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 富有 (cmn) (fùyǒu), 富的 (cmn) (fù-de), (informal) 闊 (cmn), 阔 (cmn) (kuò)

• Czech: bohatý (cs) m
• Danish: rig (da)
• Dutch: rijk (nl)
• Esperanto: riĉa (eo)
• Estonian: rikas (et)
• Finnish: rikas (fi), (negative connotation) äveriäs (fi)
• French: riche (fr)
• Georgian: მდიდარი (ka) (mdidari)
• German: reich (de)
• Greek: πλούσιος (el) (ploúsios) m, εύπορος (el) (éfporos) m
• Hawaiian: waiwai
• Hebrew: עשיר (he) (ashír)
• Hindi: अमीर (hi) (amīr), धनी (hi) (dhanī)
• Hungarian: gazdag (hu)
• Icelandic: ríkur (is) m
• Ido: richa (io)
• Indonesian: kaya (id)
• Interlingua: ric
• Irish: saibhir (ga)
• Italian: ricco (it) m, ricca (it) f
• Japanese: 裕福な (ja) (yūfuku-na), 豊かな (ja) (ゆたかな, yutaka-na), 富有な (ja) (ふゆうな, fuyū-na), 金持の (ja) (かねもちの, kanemochi-no)
• Jèrriais: riche m and f
• Kazakh: бай (kk) (bay)

• Korean: 풍부한 (ko) (pungbu-han), 부자인 (ko) (buja-in)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: دۆڵه‌مه‌ند (ku) (dollemend), خاوه‌ن پاره‌ (ku) (xawen pare)

• Latin: dives (la)
• Latvian: bagāts (lv), turīgs (lv), mantīgs (lv)
• Lithuanian: turtingas (lt)
• Luxembourgish: räich (lb)
• Macedonian: богат (mk) (bógat)
• Malay: kaya (ms)
• Norwegian: rik (no)
• Old Provençal: ric
• Persian: غنی (fa) (ğani)
• Polish: bogaty (pl)
• Portuguese: rico (pt), rica (pt) f
• Romanian: bogat m, bogată f, avut m, avută f
• Russian: богатый (ru) (bogátyj), состоятельный (ru) (sostojátel'nyj), зажиточный (ru) (zažítočnyj), обеспеченный (ru) (obespéčennyj)
• Sanskrit: धनिक (sa) (dhanika)
• Scottish Gaelic: beairteach
• Serbo-Croatian: богат, bogat, имућан, imućan
• Slovak: bohatý (sk)
• Slovene: bogàt (sl)
• Spanish: rico (es)
• Swahili: tajiri (sw)
• Swedish: rik (sv)
• Tamil: பணக்கார (ta) (paṇakāra)
• Telugu: సంపన్న (te) (saMpanna), ధనిక (te) (dhanika)
• Thai: รวย (th) (ruay), มีเงิน (th) (mee-ngern)
• Turkish: varlıklı (tr), varsıl (tr), zengin (tr)
• Ukrainian: багатий (uk) (bahátyj)
• Urdu: امیر (ur) (amīr), دھنی (ur) (dhanī)
• Vietnamese: giàu (vi)
• Volapük: liegik (vo)
• West Frisian: ryk (fy)

Verb

rich (third-person singular simple present riches, present participle riching, simple past and past participle riched)

1. (obsolete) To enrich.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: seeing · won't · plain · #632: rich · carry · immediately · trees