What does "cheap" mean?

1. (low price) costing very little money or less than you expected. 2. (poor quality) made badly or using low-quality materials. 3. (stingy) unwilling to spend money, even when you should. 4. (unfair or unkind) unfair or showing a lack of respect. 5. (computing resources) using very little of a computer's power or memory. 6. (at a low cost) for a low price.

cheap — meaning, definition & examples

Q: Is it correct to say "I bought a cheap car, but it is very good quality."?

No — say "I bought an inexpensive car, but it is very good quality.". While 'cheap' means low price, it often suggests 'bad quality'. Use 'inexpensive' if you want to be purely positive about the price.

Word

01low price

A1 · Beginner

adj. costing very little money or less than you expected.

adj. available at a low price or reduced in cost relative to the market average.

“The tickets were very cheap because we bought them three months in advance.”

“The airline offers cheap fares to major European hubs, provided that passengers are willing to travel with only a small carry-on bag.”

Pitfall

I bought a cheap car, but it is very good quality.

I bought an inexpensive car, but it is very good quality.

While 'cheap' means low price, it often suggests 'bad quality'. Use 'inexpensive' if you want to be purely positive about the price.

Synonyms

inexpensive affordablelow-cost

Antonyms

expensive costly dear

02poor quality

B1 · Intermediate

adj. made badly or using low-quality materials.

adj. of inferior quality or shoddy workmanship; lacking value despite the low price.

“I bought a cheap umbrella that broke the first time it rained.”

“The furniture felt cheap and flimsy, suggesting it would not survive a single house move without falling apart.”

Synonyms

shoddypoor-qualitytacky

Antonyms

high-qualitypremium

03stingy

B2 · Upper Intermediate Informal

adj. unwilling to spend money, even when you should.

adj. unwilling to spend money; excessively frugal in a way that others find annoying or embarrassing.

“He is so cheap that he never leaves a tip at the restaurant.”

“Her colleagues considered her cheap because she always managed to disappear whenever it was her turn to buy a round of drinks.”

Synonyms

stingy meantight-fisted

Antonyms

generous extravagant

04unfair or unkind

C1 · Advanced Informal

adj. unfair or showing a lack of respect.

adj. describing a comment or action that is unfair, unkind, or achieved without much effort.

“That was a cheap shot at his appearance during the debate.”

“The politician resorted to cheap tricks and personal insults rather than addressing the actual substance of the new policy proposal.”

Synonyms

unfair unkind low

05computing resources

C1 · Advanced Computing Technical

adj. using very little of a computer's power or memory.

adj. requiring minimal computational resources, such as processing time or memory, to execute.

“This new algorithm is very cheap to run on older mobile phones.”

“The developers prioritised a computationally cheap solution to ensure the application remained responsive even on low-end hardware.”

Synonyms

efficient lightweight

Antonyms

expensive heavy

06at a low cost

B1 · Intermediate Informal

adv. for a low price.

adv. at a low price; used as a flat adverb in informal speech.

“I managed to get this bike cheap from a friend who was moving away.”

“They bought the property cheap during the recession and sold it for a significant profit five years later.”

Usage

Often used after verbs like 'buy', 'sell', or 'get'.

Synonyms

cheaply

Antonyms

dearly

cheap vs inexpensive

Cheap implies low quality or a lack of value, while inexpensive simply means the price is low.

RememberCheap feels flimsy; inexpensive feels like a bargain.

As a noun, from Middle English chep, from Old English cēap (“trade, market, value”), from Proto-West Germanic kaup. As a verb, from Middle English chepen, from Old English ċēapian (“to buy, bargain, trade”), from Proto-West Germanic kaupōn, from Proto-Germanic kaupōną, a verbal derivative of kaupô (“trader”), from Latin caupō. The adjective originated as a shortening of Middle and Early Modern English good cheap, literally “good purchase” (as in “that was good cheap”, i.e. “that was [a] good purchase”). Compare Dutch goedkoop, French bon marché. Cognates Cognate with Scots chepe (“to sell”), chape (“sale price”), North Frisian keap (“purchase”), West Frisian keap (“purchase, buy, acquisition”), Dutch koop (“buy, purchase, deal”), kopen (“to buy, purchase, shop”), Low German kopen (“to buy”), German Kauf (“trade, traffic, bargain, purchase, buy”), kaufen (“to buy”), Swedish köp (“bargain, purchase”), köpa (“to buy, purchase”), Norwegian Nynorsk kjøpa (“to buy, purchase”), Icelandic kaup (“purchase, bargain”), kaupa (“to purchase”); also borrowed as Finnish kauppa (“shop, trade”), Russian купить (kupitʹ, “to purchase”), Old Church Slavonic коупити (kupiti, “to purchase”), Bulgarian ку́пя (kúpja, “to purchase”), Serbo-Croatian купити (“to purchase”), Czech koupit (“to purchase”), Polish kupić (“to purchase”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

ADJECTIVE

cheap(A1)

ADVERB

cheaply(A2)

attainable bargain discount value worthless