praiseworthy
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of praiseworthy
Explanation
When you do something praiseworthy, you should be congratulated and admired for doing it. Diving into the ocean to save a drowning child is praiseworthy. Use the adjective praiseworthy to describe an action that deserves acclaim or celebration. It's praiseworthy to treat everyone with kindness, and it's also praiseworthy to discover a cure for cancer or learn to speak ten languages. The fifteenth century word comes from a shortening of "worthy of praise," and it was originally hyphenated: praise-worthy. Praise has an Old French root, pretium, "to prize or to praise."
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.
The announcement of Dudamel’s first New York season, while praiseworthy, brought an earful of gripes about his speaking in platitudes from hardcore New Yorkers unimpressed by uplift.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026
For one thing, his novel is one of the few that looks at colonizing Mars as a legitimate, even praiseworthy, escape plan.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
Others remember it as a praiseworthy attempt to fight the endemic corruption that was holding back Nigeria's development.
From BBC • Jul. 13, 2025
But “The Many Lives of Martha Stewart” includes enough of a praiseworthy viewpoint for the audience to recognize the double standard to which she was subjected in her public life.
From Salon • Jan. 29, 2024
These were praiseworthy gestures, but it was hard to imagine that they would do him much good.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
