worth
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɜːθ/
ipa: /wɝθ/
note: Indic, non-rhotic
ipa: /wɜ(r)t̪ʰ/
note: Indic, rhotic
ipa: /wərt̪ʰ/
note: backing after W
ipa: /(w)ɵrt̪ʰ/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ
Forms: form: worths
Etymology: From Middle English worth, from Old English weorþ, from Proto-West Germanic *werþ, from Proto-Germanic *werþaz (“worthy, valuable”); from Proto-Indo-European *wert-.
Cognate with Scots wirth (“worth”), Cimbrian bèart (“worth, value”), Dutch waard, weerd (“worth”), German wert (“worth”), Luxembourgish wäert (“worth”), Yiddish ווערט (vert), ווערד (verd, “worth, value”), Danish værd (“worth”), Faroese and Icelandic verður (“worth”), Norwegian Bokmål verdt (“worth”), Norwegian Nynorsk verd (“worth”), Swedish värd (“worth”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸 (wairþ, “worth, value”), Welsh gwerth (“worth, value”), Polish wart (“worth”), Ukrainian вартість (vartistʹ, “worth, value”).
Senses: examples: text: I’ll have a dollar's worth of candy, please.
text: They have proven their worths as individual fighting men and their worth as a unit.
text: stocks having a worth of two million pounds; £2 million worth of stock
text: Tradesmen relating to Building only, and such of them only as wrought in and about London, could do one Million worth of Work extraordinary;[…]
ref: 1690, Sir William Petty, Political Arithmetick, Or a Discourse Concerning the Extent and Value of Lands, People [and] Buildings, page 108:
text: A drug dealer and money launderer who was using cryptocurrency to conceal his funds has had over £1.2 million worth of Bitcoins seized, restrained and then converted into British pounds in the first case of its kind.
ref: 2018 July 19, “More than £1.2 million of Bitcoin seized from drug dealer”, in cps.gov.uk, London: Crown Prosecution Service, retrieved 20 Jul 2018:
text: The December 11 Telegraph story, which accused the Treasury of blocking plans for £30 billion worth of electrification across the rail network [...], has rung alarm bells over who is the real source of power concerning rail's development - the Department of Transport or the Treasury?
ref: 2022 January 12, Tom Allett, “MPs concerned at Treasury's influence on rail industry”, in RAIL, number 948, page 13:
glosses: Value.
examples: text: Our new director is a man whose worth is well acknowledged.
text: Manchester United's Tom Cleverley impressed on his first competitive start and Lampard demonstrated his continued worth at international level in a performance that was little more than a stroll once England swiftly exerted their obvious authority.
ref: 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: Merit, excellence.
examples: text: Although most modern OTDR equipment can store at least eight days' worth of data (in line with current industry standards), when it was downloaded from the Class 57s involved, it was discovered they had stored just over eight hours' worth of data.
ref: 2020 November 18, “Network News: Lack of safety compliance a factor in Loughborough SPAD”, in Rail, page 25:
glosses: An amount that could be achieved or produced in a specified time.
examples: text: VVhat bee they men of any worth or no? […]
No my good Lord, they bee men of no great account,
For they bee none but Tylers, Thatchers, Millers, and ſuch like.
ref: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:
glosses: High social standing, noble rank.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: a dime's worth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: all one's life's worth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: comparable worth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: disworth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: jobsworth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: money's worth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: net worth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: outworth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: pennyworth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: self-worth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: tuppence worth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: tuppenceworth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: two pennies' worth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: unworth
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: worthen
sense: Terms derived from worth (noun)
word: worthly