precious
English · Thesaurus
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
precious¹
- /ˈpɹɛʃ.əs/
- [ˈpʰɹʷɛʃ.əs] ~ [ˈpʰɹʷɛʃ.s̩]
Rhymes with -ɛʃəs
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English precious, borrowed from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin pretiōsus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price.
adjective more precious · most precious · pretious
-
Of high value or worth.
The crown had many precious gemstones.
Similar: dear, valuable, without price, estimable, worthy, worthly, prizable, treasurous, worth every penny, invaluable, precious, priceless
- Regarded with love or tenderness. The way my partner looks at me is just so precious.
- Treated with too much reverence. He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious.
- Excessively complicated.
- Extremely protective or strict (about something). Writers are often very precious about their work.
-
Blasted; damned.
It’s all owing to your precious caution that they got hold of it. If you had let me burn it, and taken my word that it was gone, it would have been a heap of ashes behind the fire, instead of being whole and sound, inside of my great-coat.
Similar: confounded, ever-loving, raasclaat, 4ucking, accursed, bally, blasted, bleeding, bleeping, blessed, blimming, blinking
-
Contrived to be cute or charming.
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.
Similar: saccharine, syrupy, twee
-
Thorough; utter.
a precious rascal
Similar: absolute, perfect, wholesale, abject, frightful, prize, clean, arrant, categoric, categorical, complete, consummate
noun preciouses · pretious
- Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling. “It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
adverb pretious
- Very; an intensifier. There is precious little we can do.
Precious²
proper noun
- A surname transferred from the nickname, originating as a male or female nickname.
- A female given name from English. She and Mma Ramotswe were fortunate, with their reasonably straightforward names of Grace and Precious respectively; she had contemporaries who were not so fortunate and had been saddled by their parents with names that were frankly ridiculous.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: cherished, preciously, treasured, wanted, valuable, artful, loved, cute, prized, generous, cherish, dignified, luxurious, pricey, dear, excellent
Translations
Every language
adj of high value or worth
| Español | precioso, preciado |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 귀중한 gwijunghan |
| 日本語 | 大切な taisetsu-na |
| 中文 | 寶貴 /宝贵 bǎoguì |
| हिन्दी | क़ीमती qīmtī, प्यारा pyārā |
| Português | precioso |
| Français | précieux |
| Deutsch | kostbar, wertvoll |
| Italiano | prezioso |
| Ελληνικά | πολύτιμος polýtimos |
| Română | prețios |
| Русский | драгоце́нный dragocénnyj, це́нный cénnyj, дорого́й dorogój |
| Tiếng Việt | quý, quý báu |
| العربية | ثَمِين ṯamīn |
| עברית | יָקָר yaqár |
adj contrived to be cute
| Deutsch | süßlich, kitschig |
|---|---|
| Ελληνικά | επιτηδευμένος epitidevménos |
Talk about this word "precious." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/precious. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. precious. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/precious "precious." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/precious.Cite this
@misc{precious_2026,
title = {precious},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/precious},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
