Valuables

How to spell valuables

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce valuables

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does valuables mean?

1. nounPersonal possessions of considerable worth, especially small portable items such as jewellery, cash, and watches.

Valuables in a sentence

• The hotel safe is where guests store their valuables overnight.

• She locked her valuables in the bottom drawer before the cleaners arrived.

Where does valuables come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb valere, which meant 'to be strong' or 'to be worth', the same root that gives us 'value', 'valid', and even 'valour'. From valere came the Old French valoir and the noun valu, which Middle English borrowed in the 1300s to mean the worth or price of something. The adjective 'valuable', meaning 'having considerable worth', was formed in English by attaching the suffix '-able' to 'value' in the 1500s. Used as a plural noun, 'valuables' came to mean the precious possessions worth guarding, especially small portable items like jewellery and money. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the silent 'e' of 'value' is dropped before '-able', leaving the easily forgotten 'u' that writers sometimes lose.

How the word is built

• valu- (from Latin valere: to be worth)
• -able (worthy of)
• -s (plural)