value

See also: valué and valúe

English

Alternative forms
  • valew (in the sense of “valour”)

Etymology

From Middle English valew, value, from Old French value ( = Italian valuta), feminine past participle of valoir, from Latin valēre (“be strong, be worth”), from Proto-Indo-European *walh₂- (“to be strong”).

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈvæljuː/, /ˈvaljuː/
  • (General American) enPR: văl'ū, IPA(key): /ˈvælju/, [ˈvæɫ.ju]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Hyphenation: value
  • Rhymes: -æljuː

Noun

value (countable and uncountable, plural values)

  1. The quality (positive or negative) that renders something desirable or valuable.
    The Shakespearean Shylock is of dubious value in the modern world.
    • 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:
      United were value for their win and Rooney could have had a hat-trick before half-time, with Paul Scholes also striking the post in the second half.
    Synonym: worth
  2. (uncountable) The degree of importance given to something.
    The value of my children's happiness is second only to that of my wife.
    • 2016 October 16, John Oliver, “Third Parties”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 26, HBO:
      Okay, for the record, and this is probably obvious, those three departments do actually do things of value, assuming that you find Pell grants, mortgage insurance, low-income housing programs, the National Weather Service, the Patent and Trademark Office, and the Census Bureau to be of some value. And if it comes as news to you that that’s what those departments do, well then, hi Gary, I’m excited you’re watching the show. Uh, quick piece of advice, please stop trying to fuck mountains!
  3. That which is valued or highly esteemed, such as one's morals, morality, or belief system.
    He does not share his parents' values.
    family values
    • 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:
      WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, […]. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.
  4. The amount (of money or goods or services) that is considered to be a fair equivalent for something else.
    • M'Culloch
      An article may be possessed of the highest degree of utility, or power to minister to our wants and enjoyments, and may be universally made use of, without possessing exchangeable value.
    • Dryden
      His design was not to pay him the value of his pictures, because they were above any price.
    • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.
  5. (music) The relative duration of a musical note.
    The value of a crotchet is twice that of a quaver.
  6. (art) The relative darkness or lightness of a color in (a specific area of) a painting etc.
    • Joe Hing Lowe
      I establish the colors and principal values by organizing the painting into three values--dark, medium […] and light.
  7. (mathematics, physics) Any definite numerical quantity or other mathematical object, determined by being measured, computed, or otherwise defined.
    The exact value of pi cannot be represented in decimal notation.
  8. Precise meaning; import.
    the value of a word; the value of a legal instrument
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Mitford to this entry?)
  9. (in the plural) The valuable ingredients to be obtained by treating a mass or compound; specifically, the precious metals contained in rock, gravel, etc.
    The vein carries good values.
    the values on the hanging walls
  10. (obsolete) Esteem; regard.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
    • Bishop Burnet
      My relation to the person was so near, and my value for him so great.
  11. (obsolete) Valour; also spelled valew.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Synonyms
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Hyponyms
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Derived terms

Translations
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Verb

value (third-person singular simple present values, present participle valuing, simple past and past participle valued)

  1. To estimate the value of; judge the worth of something.
    • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. […] But as a foundation for analysis it is highly subjective: it rests on difficult decisions about what counts as a territory, what counts as output and how to value it. Indeed, economists are still tweaking it.
    I will have the family jewels valued by a professional.
  2. To fix or determine the value of; assign a value to, as of jewelry or art work.
  3. To regard highly; think much of; place importance upon.
    Gold was valued highly among the Romans.
  4. To hold dear.
    I value these old photographs.

Synonyms
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Antonyms
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Translations
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See also

Further reading
  • value in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • value in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
  • value at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

French

Verb

value

  1. feminine singular of the past participle of valoir
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