valuable

adjective valu·able \ ˈval-yə-bəl , -yə-wə-bəl , -yü-ə- \

Updated on: 14 Apr 2018

Definition of valuable

1 a : having monetary value

b : worth a good price

2 a : having desirable or esteemed characteristics or qualities

valuable friendships

b : of great use or service

valuable advice

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valuableness

noun

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valuably

play \ˈval-yə-blē, -yə-wə-blē, -yü-ə-\ adverb

See valuable defined for English-language learners

See valuable defined for kids

Examples of valuable in a Sentence

The watch is extremely valuable.
A lot of valuable advice can be found in this book.
I learned a valuable lesson.
He made many valuable contributions to the field of science.
The volunteers provide a valuable service to the community.
She is a valuable member of the staff.
Clean air is a valuable natural resource that needs to be protected.
Please don't waste my time. My time is very valuable.

Recent Examples of valuable from the Web

His skill, a scorer capable closing out wins for a playoff team is much more valuable than Simmons' rebounding, defense and passing.

— SI.com, "Is Quin Synder Worthy of the Coach of the Year Award?," 10 Apr. 2018
The hope, Britt said, is that students will have a more valuable experience spending so much time in the classroom with a veteran teacher and build strong relationships with the school and district, creating a pipeline of teacher candidates.

— arika herron, Indianapolis Star, "How Marian University is working to help solve the teaching shortage," 9 Apr. 2018
The good news is that the executives have already made a lot of money and the workers have valuable, in-demand job skills.

— matthew yglesias, Vox, "The case against Facebook," 9 Apr. 2018
Any items inside will tend to be valuable, lethal, unlawful or contested.

— malia wollan, New York Times, "How to Crack a Safe," 4 Apr. 2018
If his offense could improve, even just to something approaching league average, he immediately would be regarded as one of the game’s more valuable shortstops.

— nick piecoro, azcentral, "Diamondbacks' Nick Ahmed working to shed 'light-hitting' label," 2 Apr. 2018
That has left coal companies to argue that their electricity is more reliable and therefore more valuable than other forms of electricity.

— megan geuss, Ars Technica, "Coal, nuclear plant operator files for bankruptcy, asks Trump for a bailout," 1 Apr. 2018
Their victory became even more valuable after Villarreal slipped to a 1-0 defeat by Malaga, giving Valencia a 15-point cushion in fourth place.

— afp, chicagotribune.com, "La Liga Recap: Atletico Madrid cut gap with Barcelona to 9 points," 1 Apr. 2018
What's the more valuable piece, the knight or the bishop? Garry answers all these questions and more!

— arielle pardes, WIRED, "Pinterest's New Feature Takes the Algorithm Out of Your Feed," 29 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'valuable.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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.