Appreciation

How to spell appreciation

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce appreciation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does appreciation mean?

1. nounA feeling of thankfulness or grateful recognition of someone's help or kindness.
2. nounAn accurate awareness or understanding of the worth, quality, or difficulty of something.
3. nounAn increase in the monetary value of an asset over time.

Appreciation in a sentence

• The team sent flowers as a token of their appreciation for her support.

• The report shows a clear appreciation of the risks involved in the merger.

• The property delivered steady appreciation over the past decade.

• He expressed his appreciation to the volunteers who stayed late.

• Living abroad gave him a deeper appreciation of his own culture.

• Investors counted on the currency's appreciation to boost their returns.

Where does appreciation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb appretiare, meaning 'to set a price on' or 'to value', built from the prefix ad- 'to' and the noun pretium 'price, worth, value'. The matching Latin noun appretiatio described the act of appraising or putting a value on something. It travelled into English through Old French apprecier in the 1600s, at first carrying the literal sense of estimating worth before broadening to mean grateful recognition of someone's kindness or quality. The very same pretium root sits inside the everyday words 'price', 'precious', and 'appraise', which is a useful reminder that the tricky middle of appreciation is spelled with 'preci', echoing 'precious', rather than the 'sh' sound you actually hear. The financial meaning, a rise in value, preserves that earliest 'setting a price' idea almost unchanged.

How the word is built

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