- 1rare and worth a lot of money a precious vase The necklace was set with precious jewels—diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. see precious metal, precious stone Thesaurusvaluable
- precious
- priceless
- irreplaceable
- valuable worth a lot of money:The thieves took three pieces of valuable jewelry.
- precious rare and worth a lot of money; loved or valued very much:a precious Chinese vase, valued at half a million dollars precious memories of our time together
- priceless extremely valuable; loved or valued very much:a priceless collection of antiques
- irreplaceable too valuable or special to be replaced
- valuable/precious/priceless/irreplaceable possessions
- valuable/precious/priceless antiques/jewels/jewelry
- 2valuable or important and not to be wasted Clean water is a precious commodity in that part of the world. You're wasting precious time!
- 3loved or valued very much synonym treasure precious memories/possessions
- 4(informal) very attractive and easy to feel love for Isn't their new baby precious?
- 5[only before noun] (informal) used to show you are angry that another person thinks something is very important I didn't touch your precious car!
- 6(disapproving) (especially of people and their behavior) very formal, exaggerated, and not natural in what you say and do synonym affected
noun [uncountable] the preciousness of an old friendship His writings reveal an unattractive preciousness of style.See precious in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
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