Appreciate

How to spell appreciate

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce appreciate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does appreciate mean?

1. verbTo be grateful for or recognise the value of something.
2. verbTo understand or recognise the full significance of something.
3. verbTo increase in value or worth over time.

Appreciate in a sentence

• The team would appreciate a little more notice before deadlines change.

• You have to walk the site to fully appreciate the scale of the project.

• Property in that district tends to appreciate faster than the national average.

• Customers really appreciate a quick and honest reply.

• Few people appreciate how much planning a single event requires.

• The currency began to appreciate against the dollar last quarter.

Where does appreciate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Late Latin verb appretiare, meaning 'to set a price on' or 'to value', which was built from the prefix ad- (meaning 'to') and the noun pretium, the Latin word for 'price' or 'worth'. English took it in during the early 1600s, partly through the French apprécier, and at first it carried the literal accounting sense of estimating the monetary value of something. From there the meaning broadened in two directions: to value something highly in a personal or emotional way, and, in finance, to rise in value over time. The same pretium root sits inside the more obviously money-flavoured words 'price', 'precious', and 'appraise', which is a useful clue to the tricky middle of the word: it is spelled 'preci', not 'prici' or 'presh', even though the middle is pronounced 'pree-shee'. Keeping the 'preci' (price) core in mind is the surest defence against the common misspellings.

How the word is built

• ap- (to, from Latin ad-)
• preci (price, value, from Latin pretium)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)