value
Pluralvalues
Pluralvalues
- 1The importance, worth, or usefulness of something, or the degree of importance someone gives to it.
Critics praised the artistic value of her early films.
The true value of friendship becomes clear in hard times.
UsageOften of + adjective + value: of great value, of little value; and the value of something.
Similarworth, importance, merit, significance, usefulness
- 2The amount of money, goods, or services regarded as a fair equivalent for something else.
The dealer assessed the value of the painting before the auction.
Collectors disagree about the market value of these vintage coins.
UsageCommon patterns: the value of a house, market value, and rise or fall in value.
Similarprice, worth, valuation, cost
Note
Economists have long kept price-value apart from usefulness. John Ramsay McCulloch's Principles of Political Economy (1825) observes that an article may have the highest utility without possessing exchangeable value. The same sense underlies GDP, the market value of a country's final goods and services in a given period. Dryden, translating De Arte Graphica in 1695, shows its limit: pictures can be "above any price," so their value cannot be paid.
- 3Something held in high esteem, such as a person's morals or guiding beliefs.
Respect for elders remains a deeply held value in many communities.
The company lists integrity as its guiding value.
UsageCommon phrases: family values, shared values, core values, a clash of values.
Similarprinciple, ideal, belief, ethic, standard
Note
In the plural the word turns from what a thing is worth to what a person stands by: shared values, family values, a clash of values. Context does the sorting: his values are his principles, while the value of his house is its price.
- 4A definite numerical quantity or other mathematical object, found by measuring, computing, or defining it.
Substitute the measured value into the formula to find the result.
Each cell in the spreadsheet holds a numerical value.
Similarquantity, number, figure
Note
In mathematics a value is what fills a slot: the value of a variable, the value a function returns for an input, the measured value substituted into a formula. It need not be a tidy number, or even a number at all, since any definite mathematical object qualifies. The exact value of pi is perfectly definite, yet it cannot be written out in decimal notation.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Mathematical values can be objects other than numbers. homepages.ucl.ac.uk
- Pi has a definite exact value. en.wikipedia.org
- Pi's decimal expansion cannot be written out in full because it never ends. en.wikipedia.org
- 5To regard someone or something as important, worthwhile, or dear to oneself.
Employers value workers who show up on time and stay focused.
She has always valued loyalty above every other quality.
UsageCommon patterns: value loyalty above everything, value someone for their honesty, a valued customer.
Similarprize, treasure, cherish, appreciate, esteem
- 6To determine or estimate the worth of something; to judge how much it is worth.
The surveyor valued the property at half a million dollars.
Auctioneers must value each item before the sale begins.
UsageThe figure follows at: a house valued at $500,000. A valued client, by contrast, is one you prize.
Similarevaluate
Less common meanings
- 7The relative lightness or darkness of a color in a given area of a painting or other artwork.
By lowering the value in the background, she pushed it deeper into the scene.
The painting relies on sharp contrasts in value rather than bright colors.
Similartone
Note
A painter's word for tone, judged apart from hue: two quite different colors can share one value. It works as a mass noun (contrast in value) and as a count noun, so painters speak of establishing a painting's values, its whole range of lights and darks. Mixing pigments of equal value often gives a slightly darker value, because pigments subtract light rather than add it.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Different colors can have the same value. munsellcolorscienceforpainters.com
- Equal-value mixtures need not become darker: GOLDEN recommends mixing in a neutral gray of the same value to avoid reducing the mixture's value. goldenartistcolors.com
- Pigments absorb light, contributing to subtractive mixing. aty.sdsu.edu
- 8How long a musical note lasts relative to other notes in the rhythm.
A half note has twice the value of a quarter note, so hold it for two beats.
In this passage, the dot changes the value of the second note.
Note
Note value is a proportion rather than a stretch of clock time: a half note always lasts twice a quarter note, but how many seconds either takes depends on the tempo. British musicians name the values crotchet, quaver and minim; Americans say quarter, eighth and half note, so one rhythm has two vocabularies. A dot after a note adds half its value again.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Note values express relative duration, with a half note worth twice a quarter note. users.wfu.edu
- The duration in seconds depends on tempo. en.wikipedia.org
- British crotchet corresponds to American quarter note. en.wikipedia.org
- British quaver corresponds to American eighth note. en.wikipedia.org
- British minim corresponds to American half note. en.wikipedia.org
- A following dot increases a note's value by half. en.wikipedia.org
- 9The precise meaning or import of something, such as a word or symbol.
Linguists study how the value of a word shifts across contexts.
The emotional value of that single word changed the whole letter.
Similarmeaning, sense, significance, import, force
- 10The esteem or high regard in which a person is held by others.
My relation to the person was so near, and my value for him so great.
a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time.The French have a high value for them ; and I confess they are often what they call delicate
1700, [John] Dryden, Fables Ancient and ModernNote
An obsolete use that described the admirer's side of the relationship: to have a high value for someone was to esteem them. Dryden's Fables Ancient and Modern (1700) says the French have "a high value for them," and Gilbert Burnet writes of "my value for him." The construction, value for plus a person, is the giveaway.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Historically, value for a person could express the esteem felt by the admirer; Gilbert Burnet used the quoted construction. en.wiktionary.org
- Dryden's Fables Ancient and Modern was first published in 1700; its title page bears MDCC. en.wikisource.org
- Dryden writes that the French have a high value for them. In context, them refers to turns of words, rather than people. instruct.uwo.ca
- The phrase my value for him is attributed to Gilbert Burnet. en.wiktionary.org
- 11Courage or bravery, especially when displayed in combat.
Note
Spenser could still use the word for courage in The Faerie Queene (1590), where a knight meets his foe "with equall valew," spelled the Middle English way. The strength in the Latin root behind the core "worth" sense lies close to the surface here.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, whose first edition, containing Books I–III, appeared in 1590. themorgan.org
- The narrator describes a knight answering his opponent with equall valew in Book II, Canto VI, stanza 29. upload.wikimedia.org
- Value here means valour or courage. gutenberg.org
- Valew is an attested Middle English spelling of value. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin root behind value is valēre, with meanings involving both strength and worth. en.wiktionary.org
- 12The worthwhile material that can be recovered by processing an ore or other mass, especially the precious metal in rock or gravel.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Old French value was the feminine past participle of valoir, a verb from Latin valēre ("to be strong, to be worth"), and English took it over as Middle English value. The Latin verb goes back through Proto-Italic to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to be strong".