Define:Worth
English
eeditPronunciation
eedit- (Received Pronunciation): /wɜːθ/
- (US): /wɜːrθ/
Audio (US) (help·info)
- Rhymes: -ɜː(r)θ
Etymology 1
eedit< Template:Proto (the noun developing from the adjective). Cognate with German
/
, Dutch
, Swedish
.
Adjective
eeditWorth (comparative maist Worth, superlative maist Worth)
- Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for.
- My house now is worth double what I paid for it.
- Cleanliness is the virtue most worth having but one.
- Deserving of.
- I think you’ll find my proposal worth your attention.
- (obsolete, Template:Context 2) Valuable, worth while.
- Making a fair equivalent of, repaying or compensating.
- This job is hardly worth the effort.
Usage notes
eeditThe modern adjectival senses of worth compare two noun phrases, prompting some sources to classify the word as a preposition. Most, however, list it an adjective, some with notes like "governing a noun with prepositional force." Fowler's Modern English Usage says, "the adjective worth requires what is most easily described as an object."
Joan Maling (1983) shows that worth is best analysed as a preposition rather than an adjective. CGEL (2002) analyzes it as an adjective.
Derived terms
eedit- for what it's worth/FWIW
- more trouble than it's worth
- not worth a dime
- worth a try
- worth every penny
- worthful
- worth it
- worth its weight in gold
- worthless
- worth one's salt
- worth one's while
- worth the risk
- worthwhile
- worthy
Translations
eedit
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Noun
eedit- Template:Countable Value.
- I’ll have a dollar's worth of candy, please.
- They have proven their worths as individual fighting men and their worth as a unit.
- Template:Uncountable Merit, excellence.
- Our new director is a man whose worth is well acknowledged.
Derived terms
eeditTranslations
eeditEtymology 2
eedit. Cognate with Dutch
, German
, Latin
, Old Norse
(Norwegian
, Swedish
).
Verb
eeditWorth (third-person singular simple present worths, present participle worthing, simple past worth or worthed, past participle worth, worthed, or worthen)
- Template:Obsolete To be, become, betide.
- Woe worth the man that crosses me.
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 3, "Lndlord Edmund"
- For, adds our erudite Friend, the Saxon weorthan equivalent to the German werden, means to grow, to become; traces of which old vocable are still found in the North-country dialects, as, ‘What is word of him?’ meaning ‘What is become of him?’ and the like. Nay we in modern English still say, ‘Woe worth the hour.’ {Woe befall the hour}
Derived terms
eeditReferences
eedit- Worth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionar, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- Worth in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- Template:R:OneLook
- Joan Maling (1983), Transitive Adjectives: A Case of Categorial Reanalysis, in F. Henry and B. Richards (eds.), Linguistic Categories: Auxiliaries and Related Puzzles, vol.1, pp. 253-289.
Statistics
eeditAnagrams
eeditScots
eeditAdjective
eeditWorth (comparative mair Worth, superlative maist Worth)
- Valuable, worth while.