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• worth
  worth

  preposition

  good or important enough to justify (what is specified).
• Worth
  Worth

  noun

  a town in NE Illinois.

worth

¹ American  

[wurth] / wɜrθ /

preposition

1. good or important enough to justify (what is specified).

   advice worth taking;

   a place worth visiting.

2. having a value of, or equal in value to, as in money.

   This vase is worth 12 dollars.

3. having property to the value or amount of.

   They are worth millions.

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noun

1. excellence of character or quality as commanding esteem.

   women of worth.

2. usefulness or importance, as to the world, to a person, or for a purpose.

   Your worth to the world is inestimable.

3. value, as in money.

4. a quantity of something of a specified value.

   ten cents' worth of candy.

5. wealth; riches; property or possessions.

   net worth.

idioms

1. for all one is worth, to the utmost.

   He ran for all he was worth.

2. for what it’s worth, whether or not (what is stated) is useful or important enough to justify.

   For what it’s worth, I think you should apologize to him.

worth ² American  

[wurth] / wɜrθ /

verb (used without object)

Archaic.

1. to happen or betide.

   woe worth the day.

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Worth ³ American  

[wurth] / wɜrθ /

noun

1. a town in NE Illinois.

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worth ¹ British  

/ wɜːθ /

adjective

1. worthy of; meriting or justifying

   it's not worth discussing

   an idea worth some thought

2. having a value of

   the book is worth 30 pounds

3. to the utmost; to the full extent of one's powers or ability

4. extremely helpful, kind, etc

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noun

1. high quality; excellence

2. value, price

3. the amount or quantity of something of a specified value

   five pounds worth of petrol

Worth ² British  

/ wɜːθ, vɔrt /

noun

1. Charles Frederick. 1825–95, English couturier, who founded Parisian haute couture

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worth ³ British  

/ wɜːθ /

verb

1. archaic (intr) to happen or betide (esp in the phrase woe worth the day )

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worth More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing worth

• for all one is worth
• game is not worth the candle
• get one's money's worth
• not worth a damn
• picture is worth a thousand words

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Synonym Usage

See desert. See value.

Etymology

Origin of worth¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English weorth, worth, wurth; cognate with Old High German werd, Old Frisian werth, Old Norse verthr, Gothic wairths

Origin of worth²

First recorded before 900; Middle English worthen, Old English wurthan, weorthan, wyrthan; cognate with German werden, Old Norse vertha, Gothic wairthan “to become,” Latin vertere “to turn”; see verse

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Explanation

The noun worth refers to the monetary value of something. If your grandmother gives you a strange old coin from her collection, you can have it appraised to determine its worth. The noun worth also means the inherent value of something based on the qualities of excellence, usefulness or importance. Don't underestimate your worth to the group; the whole bake sale would have fallen apart without you, and your brownies were delicious. As an adjective worth describes something that has a value or deserves to be treated a certain way, like when your hard work baking is worth the effort.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

worth Worth

Tottenham counterpart Martin Ho says the onus is on clubs and players to ensure the product on the field is worth watching.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

The awards, worth 381.8 million ringgit for CelcomDigi and 203 million ringgit for Maxis, give both operators direct ownership of spectrum previously accessed through partners, he notes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Here’s Mark: “I’ll be handpicking the stories worth your time each morning, with more of MarketWatch’s best reporting and perspective on what it all means for your money. See you Monday!”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

Instead, it’s worth looking at things that seem much more attenuated from the facts of this concrete case.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

Whether I lived or died depended on him, on his thinking, on his ideas about me—whether I was worth the bother or not.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

Talarico added in an interview with NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that the episode was "a good reminder that you can't believe everything you read on the internet."

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

In late 2022, the company unveiled a smaller-format restaurant outside Fort Worth, Texas, designed around customers ordering ahead through an app and collecting their food from a conveyor system.

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026

“Be sure you understand the volatility associated with longer-duration bonds before investing,” says financial planner Edward Mahaffy of ClientFirst Wealth, Legacy & Estate Planning in Fort Worth, Texas.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026

In the race to replace Councilmember Bob Blumenfield in the west San Fernando Valley, business owner Tim Gaspar had collected $265,000 for the runoff campaign, compared with nearly $101,000 for political aide Barri Worth Girvan.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Then John Worth had to go and ruin it all by having a rip-roaring nightmare.

From "Worth" by A. LaFaye

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