Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EXORBITANT
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pronounce
EXORBITANT:
Say it "egg ZOR bit unt."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Words like orb and orbit probably trace back to the Latin orbita, meaning "a rut or track left by a wheel."

So you can see why we call a price exorbitant when it's way too high, as if it's far outside of any normal track or orbit. Like, $8 for an eight-ounce bottle of orange juice in an airport. Yeah, I bought it. Ugh, what an exorbitant price.
See if you can recall another four-syllable adjective for things that are priced way too high: something us_r___s (like the interest rate on a credit card) is too high, unfairly taking advantage of people.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
Our word "exorbitant" has Latin roots that literally mean "out of the wheel track" or "out of orbit."
And that's the oldest meaning of "exorbitant:" for hundreds of years, it meant "going off-track: going outside the usual track or orbit."
But the meaning has changed a bit. (Yup, it went off-track.) Now, when we say something is exorbitant--usually a price or a fee--we mean it's way too much or way too high.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Adjective: "these exorbitant fees;" "Those fines are exorbitant."
Other common forms:
exorbitantly, exorbitance
how to use it:
Pick this formal, common word when you need to complain about unreasonably high prices being charged by unreasonable people, companies, and industries.
Talk about exorbitant fees, fines, rates, costs, and prices. Like this: "the exorbitant cost of living in Hawaii;" "the exorbitant prices of these prescription drugs;" "the college charges exorbitant fees every semester." Sometimes we talk about exorbitant hikes or increases: "They raised the cost of tuition by an exorbitant 40%."
As you can see, we most often use "exorbitant" to talk literally about money. But we can get figurative, too. "As virtual schooling continues, students are paying an exorbitant cost; they're stressed, they're lonely, and their eyes are red from staring at screens all day."
And although we most often use "exorbitant" to talk about (literal or figurative) prices, we can also talk about other exorbitant amounts of things, like time, energy, or emotions. "It is a mistake to display exorbitant possessiveness over a romantic partner (The New Yorker)."
examples:
"Fans [of live sports] are milked through expensive tickets, eye-watering concession prices and exorbitant parking fees."
— Kevin Draper, New York Times, 17 August 2020
"Unless you're happy with an exorbitant amount of leftovers, you probably shouldn't plan on cooking a 16-pound turkey for a small group of people."
— Amy Wong, Seattle Times, 14 November 2020
has this page helped you understand "exorbitant"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "exorbitant" without saying "excessive" or "steep."
try it out:
You guys might have noticed that my main website is at "www.MakeYourPoint.us," and not the nicer, more standard-sounding "www.MakeYourPoint.com."
I would have preferred the .com. But someone already owned it, and when I asked if it was for sale, here's what I was told: "The price is US$18,750."

Talk about a time you, too, had to laugh at some exorbitant price.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for January is "Find the Missing Link."
In each chain of words, find the one that's missing from the middle. This missing link, according to a thesaurus, is a synonym of each word on its left and right. But as you'll see, the words on the left and right are most definitely not synonyms!
For example, if I give you "special → _____ → typical," then you answer, "peculiar," because sometimes "peculiar" means "special, different, odd," but other times it means "typical of this, specific to this, distinctively this."
To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Your answer might be different from mine but just as good. Enjoy!
Try this one today:
free → _____ → sloppy
review this word:
1. The opposite of EXORBITANT is
A. FAIR.
B. CLEAR.
C. ORDERLY.
2. According to Reuters, a Swiss pharmaceutical company "_____ doctors with exorbitant speaker fees" and "_____ dinners."
A. offended .. fast food
B. lavished .. expensive
C. confused .. luxurious
a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Words like orb and orbit probably trace back to the Latin orbita, meaning "a rut or track left by a wheel."
Our word "exorbitant" has Latin roots that literally mean "out of the wheel track" or "out of orbit."
Part of speech:
Pick this formal, common word when you need to complain about unreasonably high prices being charged by unreasonable people, companies, and industries.
"Fans [of live sports] are milked through expensive tickets, eye-watering concession prices and exorbitant parking fees."
Explain the meaning of "exorbitant" without saying "excessive" or "steep."
You guys might have noticed that my main website is at "www.MakeYourPoint.us," and not the nicer, more standard-sounding "www.MakeYourPoint.com."
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
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