precious

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Very valuable or worth a lot of money.

   Diamonds and rubies are precious stones.

2. 2
   adj

   Greatly loved and important to someone.

   These photographs are precious to me.

3. 3
   adv

   Very (used to stress how little there is of something).

   There is precious little time left before the deadline.

Common collocations

• precious stone Adjective + noun

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.

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