costly

adjective

cost·​ly ˈkȯs(t)-lē 

costlier; costliest

1

a

: commanding a high price especially because of intrinsic worth

costly gems

b

: rich, splendid

2

: made or done at heavy expense or sacrifice

a costly mistake

costliness noun

Synonyms

• big-ticket
• dear
• expensive
• extravagant
• high
• high-end
• high-ticket
• precious
• premium
• priceless
• pricey
• pricy
• spendy [chiefly Northwest]
• ultraexpensive
• valuable

Examples of costly in a Sentence

We use less costly materials in our products.

It was too costly to fix her car after the accident, so she decided to buy a new car instead.

They won the game, but their best player was injured, so it was a costly victory.

The decision to wait could be a costly mistake.

Recent Examples on the Web

While building redundancy into enterprise systems is costly, what happened Friday is more expensive. —Kevin Williams, CNBC, 20 July 2024

Having redundancies in the infrastructure may be costly in the beginning, but would be an investment in maintaining the trust between the businesses and their customers, Abed said. —Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY, 20 July 2024

Its current energy grid creates little incentive for power companies to invest in backup power or costly infrastructure upgrades. —Umair Irfan, Vox, 17 July 2024

Updating all of the necessary identity documents is costly. —Orion Rummler, Them, 16 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

costly

adjective

cost·​ly ˈkȯs(t)-lē 

costlier; costliest

1

: of great cost or value

costly furs

2

: gained at great expense or sacrifice

a costly victory

costliness noun