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precious

pre·cious/ˈpɹɛʃ.əs/adjective, noun, adverb

precious is spelled P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S: 8 letters and 2 syllables (pre·cious). It appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, precious means “Of high value or worth” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in precious?

Letters8: P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S
Syllables2: pre·cious
In writing21 times per million words; the 4,076th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is precious?

Precious appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce precious?

  • /ˈpɹɛʃ.əs/
  • [ˈpʰɹʷɛʃ.əs] ~ [ˈpʰɹʷɛʃ.s̩]

Precious has 2 syllables, split pre·cious in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-precious.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-precious.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of precious

  • more precious comparative
  • most precious superlative
  • preciouses plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does precious mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Of high value or worth.

    The crown had many precious gemstones. This building work needs site access, and tell the city council that I don't care about a few lorry tyre ruts across their precious grass verge.

  2. 2

    Regarded with love or tenderness.

    The way my partner looks at me is just so precious.

  3. 3

    derogatoryTreated with too much reverence.

    He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious.

  4. 4

    Excessively complicated.

  5. 5

    informalExtremely protective or strict (about something).

    Writers are often very precious about their work.

  6. 6

    derogatoryinformalBlasted; damned.

  7. 7

    derogatoryContrived to be cute or charming.

  8. 8

    colloquialThorough; utter.

    a precious rascal

noun

  1. 1

    Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.

adverb

  1. 1

    Very; an intensifier.

    There is precious little we can do.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate precious?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of precious: presh.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Precious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchprécieux (of high value or worth)
Germankostbar, wertvoll (of high value or worth), süßlich, kitschig (contrived to be cute)
Portugueseprecioso (of high value or worth)
Spanishprecioso, preciado (of high value or worth)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does precious come 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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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