invaluable
adjective
Did you know?
invaluable = valuable?
Many people find it confusing that the in- prefix at the beginning of invaluable apparently lacks the meaning "not" found in a number of other words, such as invalid, inarticulate, and insane. In fact, the prefix does indicate negation, but in a way that is not immediately obvious. The original (and current) meaning of invaluable is "valuable beyond estimation"; the word describes something so precious that one cannot assign a price to it. This, clearly, is the opposite of the meaning "having no value; valueless" that the word might seem to carry. Invaluable actually has been recorded in the sense "without value," but such use has been exceedingly rare and is practically nonexistent today.
Examples of invaluable in a Sentence
Oliver Sacks, New York Review of Books, 25 Sept. 2008
… the scrolls provide an invaluable snapshot of at least one important strain in early Judaism—though they are by no means a complete record of Jewish belief at that time.
—Jeremy Lott, Lingua Franca, February 2001
I stayed there only a month or so but it was an invaluable experience … : that month's residence provided the inspiration for a novel I wrote much later, Sophie's Choice.
—William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, (1953) 1982
Their help has been invaluable to us.
the list of likely donors proved to be invaluable to our fund-raising efforts
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2025
And although nurses provide invaluable help, much of his care is handled by his family.
—Wendy Grossman Kantor, PEOPLE, 30 Oct. 2025
Despite not finding the wreckage, the expedition captured invaluable underwater footage of marine life that inhabits the frigid depths of the Weddell Sea.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 29 Oct. 2025
And nonprofit organizations must step up and work together in partnership with other anti-hunger organizations, older adult providers, and local and state governments to continue this invaluable research.
—Beth Shapiro, Time, 27 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for invaluable
Cite this Entry
“Invaluable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invaluable. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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