Costly

How to spell costly

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce costly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does costly mean?

1. adjectiveCosting a great deal of money, or causing serious loss or harm.

Costly in a sentence

• Replacing the roof turned out to be a costly repair.

• The missed deadline was a costly mistake for the whole team.

Where does costly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grew out of the noun 'cost', which English borrowed in the 1200s from Old French 'coust', itself descended from the Latin verb 'constare', literally meaning 'to stand together' or 'to stand firm', a sense that shifted into 'to be fixed at a price' and finally just 'to cost'. To this borrowed noun English speakers attached the thoroughly native suffix '-ly', which comes from Old English 'lic' meaning 'having the form or body of', the same ending found in 'friendly' and 'lovely'. The combination first appears in the 1300s with the straightforward meaning 'expensive' or 'lavish'. Note that the '-ly' here makes an adjective, not an adverb, which is unusual since most '-ly' words are adverbs. The spelling stays simple because the silent 'e' of the unrelated noun 'coste' was lost early, leaving a clean 'cost' plus 'ly' with no doubling and no dropped letters.

How the word is built

• cost (from Latin constare: to stand firm, to cost)
• -ly (adjective suffix meaning 'having the quality of')