price
noun
the sum or amount of money or its equivalent for which anything is bought, sold, or offered for sale.
price
1 American
[prahys]
/ praɪs /
noun
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prices
plural
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the sum or amount of money or its equivalent for which anything is bought, sold, or offered for sale.
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a sum offered for the capture of a person alive or dead.
The authorities put a price on his head.
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the sum of money, or other consideration, for which a person's support, consent, etc., may be obtained, especially in cases involving sacrifice of integrity.
They claimed that every politician has a price.
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that which must be given, done, or undergone in order to obtain a thing.
He gained the victory, but at a heavy price.
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odds.
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Archaic. value or worth.
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Archaic. great value or worth (usually preceded byof ).
verb (used with object)
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prices,
present (3rd person singular)
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priced,
past participle, past
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pricing
present participle
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to fix the price of.
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to ask or determine the price of.
We spent the day pricing furniture at various stores.
idioms
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at any price, at any cost, no matter how great.
Their orders were to capture the town at any price.
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beyond / without price, of incalculable value; priceless.
The crown jewels are beyond price.
Price
2
American
[prahys]
/ praɪs /
noun
-
Bruce, 1845–1903, U.S. architect.
-
(Edward) Reynolds, 1933–2011, U.S. novelist.
-
(Mary) Leontyne born 1927, U.S. soprano.
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a male given name.
price
British
/ praɪs /
noun
-
the sum in money or goods for which anything is or may be bought or sold
-
the cost at which anything is obtained
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the cost of bribing a person
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a sum of money offered or given as a reward for a capture or killing
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value or worth, esp high worth
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gambling another word for odds
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whatever the price or cost
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at a high price
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invaluable or priceless
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what someone deserves, esp a fitting punishment
it's just the price of him
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what are the chances of something happening now?
verb
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to fix or establish the price of
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to ascertain or discover the price of
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to charge so highly for as to prevent the sale, hire, etc, of
price
More Idioms
Synonym Usage
Price, charge, cost, expense refer to outlay or expenditure required in buying or maintaining something. Price is used mainly of single, concrete objects offered for sale; charge, of services: What is the price of that coat? There is a small charge for mailing packages. Cost is mainly a purely objective term, often used in financial calculations: The cost of building a new annex was estimated at $10,000. Expense suggests cost plus incidental expenditure: The expense of the journey was more than the contemplated cost. Only charge is not used figuratively. Price, cost, and sometimes expense may be used to refer to the expenditure of mental energy, what one “pays” in anxiety, suffering, etc.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pricesimple
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pricessimple
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have pricedperfect
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has pricedperfect
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am pricingprogressive
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are pricingprogressive
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is pricingprogressive
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have been pricingperfect progressive
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has been pricingperfect progressive
Past
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pricedsimple
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had pricedperfect
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was pricingprogressive
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were pricingprogressive
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had been pricingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of price
First recorded in 1175–1225; (noun) Middle English pris(e), from Old French, Latin pretium “price, value, worth” ( cf. precious); (verb) late Middle English prisen, from Middle French prisier, derivative of pris, Old French as above; see prize 2, praise
Explanation
The price of something is how much it costs. It’s usually money, but sometimes not. For example, the price of staying up all night is that you’re really sleepy the next day. Wake up! You can use the noun price to mean the money exchanged for an item or service — or use it figuratively, to mean "something negative that's required in exchange for something positive." If you hear the phrase "a small price to pay," think of this figurative meaning. You could say, for example, that having clouds of pet hair all over your house is a small price to pay for your wonderful cat.
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:
The strength in copper has run ahead of Price’s price forecast, which stands at $9600/t or $4.69/lb in the U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Intel also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 31.6 million additional shares at the offering price.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Atlanta, who attended the event with her two children, raised concerns about the quality and price of food.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
While a surprise loss of more than 20,000 jobs in the US economy last month eased fears of a Federal Reserve hike, a spike in price pressures could force the bank's hand.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
They wore suits in Vegas, which told you half of what you needed to know about them—the other half you got from the price of those suits.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Sifting back through the data to 2021, Price found changes in net positioning explains 85% of copper’s price move, so it can be observed that speculative flows have become the dominant price catalyst.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Price suffered life-changing injuries, spending two weeks in a coma and nine months in hospital.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Recent examples include OpenAI’s disproof of the unit distance conjecture, and the proof of Erdős’ problem 1196 by Liam Price, a 23-year-old amateur mathematician.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
Price gains for petroleum products slowed as the government maintained a cap on retail fuel prices and moved to lower electricity tariffs to contain inflation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
The only character I recognized was Hamlet, who went off on Mr. Price in Shakespearean talk.
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
One other factor leading to higher prices is the continued disruption to mine supply.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group said earlier Tuesday that it expects capital-city house prices to tumble by more than 10% in the current downturn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
—Yields on U.K. government bonds, or gilts, advanced due to inflation concerns as oil prices stay elevated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
—Gold prices were broadly flat as investors await upcoming U.S. inflation data for more cues on the U.S. interest-rate outlook after weaker-than-expected jobs data led markets to scale back bets for a September hike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
If crops failed or prices for tobacco and wheat fell, as they often did, farmers went into debt.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
It was priced at thousands of dollars for a season of monthly shots and rationed, sensibly, to the highest-risk babies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
At the time, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the lead on the project, priced out a simple path on one side of the river.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
When Berkshire bought its own stock more aggressively, the stock was priced around 1 to 1.2 times book value, which would require a big drawdown from current prices.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
Alex said it felt like she and other traders were being "priced out" of an event that had previously been run by a smaller, local company.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
In a rational market, the bonds backed by pools of weaker loans would have been priced lower than the bonds backed by stronger loans.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
The company said it’s aiming to offer pricing competitive with other ride-hail services’ comfort level pricing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
The supply of HBM is getting tighter, and pricing for HBM4 and HBM4E is “even stronger than our prior expectations,” UBS’s Arcuri said in a note.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
The pricing strategy was partly driven by CXMT’s tight supply and higher production costs compared with foreign competitors, they said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Fifa has claimed the World Cup is "under-monetised", but hydration break adverts, dynamic ticket pricing and record broadcast and sponsorship rights have put the 2026 edition on track to generate record revenues.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
It’s usually used in finance or pricing, not romance.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
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.
