Treasure

How to spell treasure

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce treasure

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does treasure mean?

1. nounA quantity of precious metals, jewels, or other valuable things, especially when hidden or accumulated.
2. verbTo value something or someone very highly and keep them safe.

Treasure in a sentence

• noun

  The chest was full of treasure.

• verb

  She will treasure those old photographs for the rest of her life.

• noun

  Family photos are a real treasure.

• verb

  They will always treasure the time spent together on that trip.

Where does treasure come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek thesauros, meaning a 'storehouse' or 'treasury', the same root that later gave us the word 'thesaurus' as a storehouse of words. The Greek term passed into Latin as thesaurus, keeping the sense of a hoard of valuables or the place where such valuables were kept. From there it entered Old French as 'tresor', and English borrowed it during the 1100s, settling into the spelling 'treasure' over time. The shift from the Latin 's' to the soft 'zh' sound is reflected in the spelling 'sure', which is exactly the part adults tend to mishandle, since the ending sounds like 'zher' but is written '-sure'. The verb sense, meaning to value something greatly, grew naturally from the idea of keeping it safely stored away.

How the word is built

• treas- (from Greek thesauros: storehouse, treasury)
• -ure (noun-forming suffix)