costly
costliest; costlier
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."
Definitions of costly
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having a high price“costly jewelry”
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synonyms:
dear, high-priced, pricey, pricy
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expensive
high in price or charging high prices
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expensive
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entailing great loss or sacrifice
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synonyms:
dearly-won
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expensive
high in price or charging high prices
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expensive
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘costly'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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