English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English precious, from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin pretiosus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
precious (comparative more precious, superlative most precious)
- Of high value or worth, or seemingly regarded as such.
- The crown had many precious gemstones.
- This building work needs site access, and tell the city council that I don't care about a few lorry tyre ruts across their precious grass verge.
- Regarded with love or tenderness.
- My precious daughter is to marry.
- (pejorative) Treated with too much reverence.
- He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious.
- (pejorative) Contrived to be cute or charming.
- 2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, The Onion AV Club:
- In the abstract, Stuhlbarg’s twinkly-eyed sidekick suggests Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 by way of late-period Robin Williams with an alien twist, but Stuhlbarg makes a character that easily could have come across as precious into a surprisingly palatable, even charming man.
Synonyms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
of high value or worth
- Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can
- Albanian: please add this translation if you can
- Amharic: please add this translation if you can
- Arabic: ثمين (ar) (θamīn)
- Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
- Armenian: please add this translation if you can
- Aromanian: please add this translation if you can
- Asturian: preciosu (ast)
- Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
- Breton: please add this translation if you can
- Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
- Burmese: please add this translation if you can
- Catalan: preciós (ca)
- Cherokee: ᎦᎸᏉᏗ (chr) (galvquodi)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 寶貴 (cmn), 宝贵 (cmn) (bǎoguì)
- Corsican: please add this translation if you can
- Czech: drahocenný (cs), vzácný (cs)
- Danish: please add this translation if you can
- Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
- Dutch: kostbaar (nl),waardevol (nl)
- Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
- Estonian: please add this translation if you can
- Ewe: please add this translation if you can
- Extremaduran: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: kallisarvoinen (fi)
- French: précieux (fr)
- Friulian: please add this translation if you can
- Galician: precioso (gl)
- Georgian: please add this translation if you can
- German: kostbar (de)
- Greek: πολύτιμος (el) (polýtimos)
- Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
- Hausa: please add this translation if you can
- Hawaiian: makamae, hiwahiwa
- Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
- Hindi: क़ीमती (hi) (qīmtī), प्यारा (hi) (pyārā)
- Hungarian: értékes (hu), drága (hu), becses (hu)
- Ido: please add this translation if you can
- Igbo: please add this translation if you can
- Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
- Interlingua: please add this translation if you can
- Interlingue: please add this translation if you can
- Irish: luachmhar (ga), lómhar (ga)
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- Italian: prezioso (it)
- Japanese: 大切な (ja) (たいせつな, taisetsu-na)
- Kannada: please add this translation if you can
- Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
- Khmer: please add this translation if you can
- Kinyarwanda: please add this translation if you can
- Kirundi: please add this translation if you can
- Korean: 귀중한 (ko) (gwijunghan)
- Kurdish: please add this translation if you can
- Lao: please add this translation if you can
- Latin: pretiosus (la)
- Latvian: dārgs (lv)
- Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
- Luxembourgish: please add this translation if you can
- Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
- Marathi: please add this translation if you can
- Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
- Nepali: please add this translation if you can
- Novial: please add this translation if you can
- Occitan: preciós (oc)
- Old Provençal: precios
- Oriya: please add this translation if you can
- Pashto: please add this translation if you can
- Persian: please add this translation if you can
- Polish: cenny (pl)
- Portuguese: precioso (pt)
- Russian: драгоценный (ru) (dragocénnyj)
- Scottish Gaelic: prìseil (gd), luachmhor (gd)
- Sicilian: please add this translation if you can
- Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
- Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
- Spanish: precioso (es)
- Swedish: dyrbar (sv)
- Tamil: please add this translation if you can
- Telugu: అమూల్యమైన (te) (amūlyamaina)
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: please add this translation if you can
- Turkmen: please add this translation if you can
- Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
- Urdu: please add this translation if you can
- Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
- Uzbek: please add this translation if you can
- Volapük: please add this translation if you can
- Walloon: please add this translation if you can
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precious (uncountable)
- Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
- “It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
precious (not comparable)
- Used as an intensifier.
- There is precious little we can do.
Translations[edit]
External links[edit]
External links[edit]