Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of high cost or worth; valuable.
- adj. Highly esteemed; cherished.
- adj. Dear; beloved.
- adj. Affectedly dainty or overrefined: precious mannerisms.
- adj. Informal Thoroughgoing; unmitigated: a precious mess.
- n. One who is dear or beloved; a darling.
- adv. Used as an intensive: "He had precious little right to complain” ( James Agee).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of great price; costly; having a high money-value.
- Of great worth; held in high esteem; intrinsically valuable.
- Worthless; good-for-nothing.
- Considerable; great.
- Particular; scrupulous; fastidious; over-nice.
- Synonyms and Costly, etc. See valuable.
- Very; exceedingly; extremely.
- Affectedly fastidious, especially in the use of words; finically refined in one's literary style or artistic taste.
- Characterized by a strained or affected refinement of style, in literature or art; affectedly fine.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of high value or worth, or seemingly regarded as such.
- adj. Regarded with love or tenderness.
- adj. pejorative Treated with too much reverence.
- adj. pejorative Contrived to be cute or charming.
- n. Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
- adv. Used as an intensifier.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of great price; costly.
- adj. Of great value or worth; very valuable; highly esteemed; dear; beloved.
- adj. Particular; fastidious; overnice; overrefined. Cf. Précieuse, Preciosity.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. extremely.
- adj. characterized by feeling or showing fond affection for
- adj. held in great esteem for admirable qualities especially of an intrinsic nature
- adj. of high worth or cost
- adj. obviously contrived to charm
Etymologies
- 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. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French precios, from Latin pretiōsus, from pretium, price; see per-5 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“My precious, _precious_ child," she said, "_He_ is able to save to the”
“I know what they mean, but this is a rare case where I would use the term "precious" as a term of praise.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Husky and direct rather than what she calls "precious and demure," she's never been shy about invoking her home country one of her top early songs is called "Hockey Skates".”
The Wall Street Journal: The Short List: New Kathleen Edwards Album, 'Voyageur'
“As for the future, Earle and Buckland hope to keep their company growing while staying true to what they call their precious recipe.”
“We are very far from understanding all the secret resources of nature; but I do not think the spontaneous formation of the crystals, which we call precious stones, one of the most difficult phenomena to comprehend.”
“B.C.'s Auditor-General says the provincial government isn't doing enough to monitor and protect groundwater, which he calls a precious resource.”
“I will leave my—shit, is that what you called my precious weapons and clothes?”
“If you create a space for your child to express themselves this will promote an open communication channel and you will gain precious insight into where they are at.”
The Huffington Post: Melinda Hutchings: How To Talk To Your Teenager
“Pull your heads out. $42 million in precious urban renewal funds in a pile, pour gasoline on it and light it up that is what is going down here.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘precious’.
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Linda(G4)
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend, assist and 126 more...
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®emovies
Movies or TV shows where the titles are also common words, generally one-word titles.
lost, alien, bug, elephant, siege, gladiator, flock, captivity, piano, roots, freaks, moonstruck and 269 more...
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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Beautiful and Ugly
Beautiful, attractive, well-formed
Ugly, unattractive, malformedadorable, alluring, angelic, appealing, appetizing, attractive, beaming, beauteous, beautiful, becoming, beguiling, bewitching and 180 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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One Worders
Famous one word lines from movies. http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/05/the-best-one-...
rosebud, Bueller, plastics, inconceivable, Stella, freedom, Adrian, attica, khan, wolverines, toga, juicyfruit and 11 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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bad memory
copper, anvil, oblique, thrust, shrine, welfare, farewell, bitter, faction, sectarian, tangible, spectacle and 134 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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Girls Names
List of Girls names.
carla, jamie, ashley, kaitlyn, mae, lynn, nicole, sierra, mary, ann, manda, sara and 130 more...
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Metallics
Words that relate to or describe metals.
malleable, ductile, shiny, steely, brassy, dull, golden, precious, smelt, smith, tensile, clink and 39 more...
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trea-for-sure
questor, ali baba, precious, hold dear, loose deer, fafnir, trove, finding found, Montana, Andvari, tresor, Hyrieus and 7 more...
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essbunny@gmail.com's list
Intrigued by these words...
sphincter, blush, flume, shingle, spurt, pulp, precious, squeal, zest, zeal, cherish, fervor and 35 more...
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Let Me Call You Sweetheart
Or honey, or baby, or ...
(A Valentine's Day list.)amoret, bonnilasse, ladybird, leikin, leman, love-lass, Phyllis, pout, sweetness, munchkin, darling, sayang and 87 more...
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Words that make my mouth happy
epiphany, serendipity, beloved, treasure, cherish, precious, angelic, etherial, surreal, charm, mystical, wysteria and 1 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
gonk, nerking, guap, gimp, fabulous, dabble, fabilicious, tragic, zooted, hey, cheekini, nugget and 457 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for precious.

dailyword Gollum used this word when referring to The Ring. Sep 5, 2012
jennarenn As a name, this wasn't so bad until Lord of the Rings. Poor girl. Feb 11, 2007