precious
precious Lexical Profile
precious Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Of great material value or high price, especially regarding rare metals, gemstones, or works of art.
"The museum vault houses a collection of precious gems and ancient gold coins."
Greatly loved, cherished, or held in high esteem; not to be wasted or treated carelessly.
"She kept the faded photographs safe, as they held precious memories of her childhood."
Affectedly or excessively refined, delicate, or fastidious in manner, language, or artistic style.
"Critics dismissed the novel's prose as overly precious and detached from real human emotion."
• adverb
Extremely or very (used informally for emphasis before 'little' or 'few').
"We had precious little time to prepare for the sudden inspection."
• noun
A dearly loved person or thing (used primarily as a term of endearment in direct address).
"Come here, my precious, and let me brush your hair."
Word Nuance & Usage
While usually expressing deep affection or high material value, 'precious' can also be used pejoratively to describe behavior, art, or speech that is overly delicate, affected, or self-consciously refined. As an adverb, it is almost exclusively used in colloquial modifiers like 'precious little' or 'precious few' to mean 'extremely'.
• Rhymes for precious
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Middle English from Old French 'precios', from Latin 'pretiosus' ('costly, valuable'), derived from 'pretium' ('price, worth, reward'), which is also the root of 'price' and 'praise'.