exorbitant

What it means

1. Exceeding proper limits; excessive or unduly high; extravagant.

   It’s a nice car, but they are charging an exorbitant price for it.

   5 more examples

   You also have to pay exorbitant interest if you have credit card debt.

   But whatever might be the internal thoughts of Macedonian officers, they held their peace before Alexander [the Great], whose formidable character and exorbitant self-estimation would tolerate no criticism.

   1856, George Grote, chapter XCIV, in History of Greece, volume XII, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, part II (Continuation of Historical Greece), page 282

   Love, being an extremely exacting usurer (a sense of exorbitant profit, spiritually, by an exchange of hearts, being at the bottom of pure passions, as that of exorbitant profit, bodily or materially, is at the bottom of those of lower atmosphere), every morning his feelings were as sensitive as the money-market in calculations upon his chances.

   1874, Thomas Hardy, “Gabriel’s Resolve—The Visit—The Mistake”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 38

   In addition, many low-income people are “unbanked” (not served by a financial institution), and thus nearly eaten alive by exorbitant fees.

   2015 January 19, Charles M[cRay] Blow, “How Expensive It Is to Be Poor”, in The New York Times (A section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2021, page 19

   As I’ve pointed out, the price being asked for SpaceX shares was exorbitant, and it rose even higher on its first day of trading.

   2026 June 13, Jeff Sommer, “Mega I.P.O. Frenzy Could Be a Harbinger of a Stock Bubble”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: extortionate, inordinate, disproportionate, exorbiant, extortionable, extortionate, extortious, extravagant

In a sentence

It’s a nice car, but they are charging an exorbitant price for it.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰs
3. Proto-Italic*eks
4. Latinex
5. Latinex-
6. Proto-Indo-European*h₃erbʰ-
7. Latinorbita
8. Latinexorbitō
9. Late Latinexorbitāns
10. Old Frenchexorbitant
11. Middle Englishexorbitant
12. Englishexorbitant

From Middle English exorbitant, through Old French from Late Latin exorbitāns, present active participle of exorbitō (“to go out of the track”), from ex (“out”) + orbita (“wheel-track”); see orbit. Compare French exorbitant.