Worthwhile
adjectiveWorth the time, effort, or money spent; sufficiently valuable to justify the cost involved.
How to spell worthwhile
10 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce worthwhile
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does worthwhile mean?
- adjectiveWorth the time, effort, or money spent; sufficiently valuable to justify the cost involved.
Worthwhile in a sentence
-
The long commute was worthwhile once she landed the better-paid job.
-
Volunteering at the shelter felt genuinely worthwhile to him.
Where does worthwhile come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This compound brings together two old Germanic words native to English. 'Worth' descends from Old English 'weorth', meaning value or merit, while 'while' comes from Old English 'hwil', meaning a space of time, the same sense kept in the phrase 'a little while'. The combination grew out of the older expression 'worth one's while', which literally meant 'valuable enough to justify the time given to it'. By the nineteenth century writers had fused the idea into the single adjective 'worthwhile', describing anything that repays the effort involved. The spelling trap lives at the seam: the 'th' of worth runs straight into the 'wh' of while, so the silent 'h' after the 'w' is easy to drop when writing quickly.
How the word is built
- worth (value, merit)
- while (a period of time) = worth the time spent
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