🇬🇧 Wasteful meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

Being wasteful means using things in a way that is not smart or careful, like throwing away food, using too much paper, or leaving all the lights on when no one is home. Wasteful people don’t think about saving things for later.

Using five different shampoo bottles at once is wasteful, but my hair smells amazing.

My sister is wasteful—she prints 50 copies of her school project “just in case.”

Tim was so wasteful with glue in art class that his project was just a giant sticky blob.

Dad says taking a three-hour shower is wasteful, but I say it’s a spa day.

My cousin is wasteful—he opens 10 juice boxes, takes one sip from each, then forgets about them.

At breakfast Tom was wasteful: he poured too much milk and dumped half away. He left the tap running and the kettle boiling — wasteful, steam filling the small kitchen. He burned toast, wasteful crumbs in the bin. The house plant drooped from the wasteful watering pattern. His mother sighed; he finally gave up wasteful habits and fixed things.

This word is at the C2 level, which means it represents the highest mastery of English. It’s often used in specialized or highly formal contexts and helps you communicate with precision and subtlety, much like a native speaker.

Expanding your English vocabulary is one of the best ways to improve your pronunciation, spelling, and confidence in English. Watch the video above to memorize the word, understand its meaning, and see example sentences in action. Discover related words to grow your vocabulary naturally. Add words to your playlist for stress-free, effective learning—anytime, anywhere! Watch, learn, repeat.