costly
Americanadjective
-
costlier,
comparative
-
costliest
superlative
-
costing much; expensive; high in price.
a costly emerald bracelet; costly medical care.
- Synonyms:
- high-priced, dear
-
resulting in great expense.
The upkeep of such a large house is costly.
-
resulting in great detriment.
It was a costly mistake because no one ever trusted him again.
-
of great value; very valuable; sumptuous.
-
lavish; extravagant.
adjective
-
of great price or value; expensive
-
entailing great loss or sacrifice
a costly victory
-
splendid; lavish
Synonym Usage
See expensive.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of costly
First recorded in 1350–1400, costly is from the Middle English word costli. See cost, -ly
Explanation
Something that's costly is expensive. The worst kind of news you can hear from your car mechanic is that you need costly repairs. Things that cost a lot of money are costly, but you can also use the word for events that cost you other things — like time, happiness, or advantage. A soldier's costly mistake might result in someone's death, and a costly law might end up hurting the people it's meant to help.In the 13th century, costful was used instead, and both words stem from cost, which has a Latin root, constare, "to stand at," or "to cost."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A system that produces inexpensive answers but requires repeated corrections can be costly to use.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Supporters say Prop 45 will speed up environmental review for essential housing, transportation, water, health, education and other projects, cutting costly delays and passing the savings on to consumers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
Some institutions are also considering revising tenure provisions and are even rethinking costly intercollegiate athletic spending.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
The disease can also lower crop yields and shorten shelf life, making it a costly challenge for mushroom farms across the United States.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
The air was redolent with the scents of saffron, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and other costly spices.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
You could argue that the managers of costlier ETFs are just charging whatever the market will bear, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
AI companies could try to make models that generate more faithful and human-readable representations of their activity, but even if they succeeded, they would be costlier and much more difficult to train, says Kambhampati.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Higher interest rates make it costlier to borrow money, which acts as a brake on spending and economic growth.
From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2026
Investors weighed the AI bellwether’s rosy long-term revenue outlook against concerns that the capital it is raising to build data centers could grow costlier as borrowing rates rise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
But they bowed to Sproul’s judgment that losing Lawrence would be even costlier, and voted to cover all the annual operating and maintenance costs that Lawrence had budgeted for the Rad Lab.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
But they are also less disposable than other weapons, among the costliest in Iran’s arsenal to produce.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Berlin aims to rationalize burdensome data-protection regulations, freeing small businesses from the costliest strictures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
It was reported to be the costliest documentary film of all time, even with production costs undisclosed.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 30, 2026
Later in the year, Jaguar Land Rover was attacked, in what became the costliest cyber event in UK history.
From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026
He called Burnham a “colossal merchandiser” fixated on building the biggest, tallest, costliest structures.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
