worth

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɜːθ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /wɝθ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ, -ɜ(ɹ)θ

From Middle English worth, from Old English weorþ, from Proto-Germanic *werþaz (“worthy, valuable”); from Proto-Indo-European *wert-. Cognate with Dutch waard (adjective), Low German weert (adjective), German wert, Wert, Swedish värd.

worth (not comparable)

1. Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for.

   My house now is worth double what I paid for it.

   Cleanliness is the virtue most worth having but one.

2. Deserving of.

   I think you’ll find my proposal worth your attention.

   • 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian‎:

     Two years after their first European trophy, Atlético were well worth their second.

3. (obsolete, except in Scots) Valuable, worth while.
4. Making a fair equivalent of, repaying or compensating.

   This job is hardly worth the effort.

The modern adjectival senses of worth compare two noun phrases, prompting some sources to classify the word as a preposition. Most, however, list it an adjective, some with notes like "governing a noun with prepositional force." Fowler's Modern English Usage says, "the adjective worth requires what is most easily described as an object."

Joan Maling (1983) shows that worth is best analysed as a preposition rather than an adjective. CGEL (2002) analyzes it as an adjective.

Compare:

Organic strawberries are worth paying extra money for.

It's worth paying extra money for organic strawberries.

When used directly as the adjective of the subject, the verb to be, usually associated to it, is conjugated according to the subject. In the first example, as a plural. In the other case, the subject is only the pronoun it.

worth (countable and uncountable, plural worths)

1. (countable) Value.

   I’ll have a dollar's worth of candy, please.

   They have proven their worths as individual fighting men and their worth as a unit.

2. (uncountable) Merit, excellence.

   Our new director is a man whose worth is well acknowledged.

   • 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport‎:

     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.

3. (uncountable) Wealth, fortune, riches, property, possessions.
   • 2018 July 19, “More than £1.2 million of Bitcoin seized from drug dealer”, in cps.gov.uk‎, London: Crown Prosecution Service, retrieved 2018-07-20:

     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.

From Middle English worthen, wurthen, werthen (“to be; exist; come into being; come into existence”), from Old English weorþan (“to come into being; be made; become; arise; be”), from Proto-Germanic *werþaną (“to come about; happen; come into being; become”), from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn; turn out”). Cognate with Dutch worden, Low German warrn, German werden, Old Norse verða (Norwegian verta, Swedish varda), Latin vertere.

• word

worth (third-person singular simple present worths, present participle worthing, simple past worth or worthed, past participle worth or worthed or worthen)

1. (obsolete, except in set phrases) To be, become, betide.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Ezekiel 30:2:

     Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 3, "Landlord Edmund"

     For, adds our erudite Friend, the Saxon weorthan equivalent to the German werden, means to grow, to become; traces of which old vocable are still found in the North-country dialects, as, ‘What is word of him?’ meaning ‘What is become of him?’ and the like. Nay we in modern English still say, ‘Woe worth the hour.’ [i.e. Woe befall the hour]

   Woe worth the man that crosses me.

   What's word of him now?

   Well worth thee, me friend.

   (May good fortune befall you, my friend.)

• forworth

• worth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• worth in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• worth at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Joan Maling (1983), Transitive Adjectives: A Case of Categorial Reanalysis, in F. Henry and B. Richards (eds.), Linguistic Categories: Auxiliaries and Related Puzzles, vol.1, pp. 253-289.

• throw, whort, wroth

worth (comparative mair worth, superlative maist worth)

1. Valuable, worth while.