Worth vs. Cost — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Worth and Cost
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Definitions
Worth
The quality that renders something desirable, useful, or valuable
The worth of higher education.
Cost
In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost.
Worth
Material or market value
Stocks having a worth of ten million dollars.
Cost
An amount paid or required in payment for a purchase; a price.
Worth
A quantity of something that may be purchased for a specified sum or by a specified means
Ten dollars' worth of natural gas.
Wanted their money's worth.
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Cost
The expenditure of something, such as time or labor, necessary for the attainment of a goal
"Freedom to advocate unpopular causes does not require that such advocacy be without cost" (Milton Friedman).
Worth
Wealth; riches
Her net worth.
Cost
Costs(Law) Charges incurred in bringing litigation, including court fees and charges that may be payable by the losing party, but usually not including attorneys' fees.
Worth
Quality that commands esteem or respect; merit
A person of great worth.
Cost
To require a specified payment, expenditure, effort, or loss
It costs more to live in the city.
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Worth
Equal in value to something specified
Worth its weight in gold.
Cost
To have as a price.
Worth
Deserving of; meriting
A proposal not worth consideration.
Cost
To cause to lose, suffer, or sacrifice
Participating in the strike cost me my job.
Worth
Having wealth or riches amounting to
A person worth millions.
Cost
Past tense and past participle costed To estimate or determine the cost of
The accountants costed out our expenses.
Worth
To befall; betide.
Cost
To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) price.
This shirt cost $50, while this was cheaper at only $30.
It will cost you a lot of money to take a trip around the world.
Worth
Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for.
My house now is worth double what I paid for it.
Cleanliness is a virtue worth more than others.
A painting worth thousands.
Cost
To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
Trying to rescue the man from the burning building cost them their lives.
Worth
Deserving of.
I think you’ll find my proposal worth your attention.
His friendship is not worth having.
Cost
To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
Worth
Valuable, worthwhile.
Cost
To calculate or estimate a price.
I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.
Worth
Making a fair equivalent of, repaying or compensating.
This job is hardly worth the effort.
Cost
Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
The total cost of the new complex was an estimated $1.5 million.
We have to cut costs if we want to avoid bankruptcy.
The average cost of a new house is twice as much as it was 20 years ago.
Worth
(countable) Value.
I’ll have a dollar's worth of candy, please.
They have proven their worths as individual fighting men and their worth as a unit.
Stocks having a worth of two million pounds
Cost
A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
Spending all your time working may earn you a lot of money at the cost of your health.
The army won the battle decisively, but at a cost of many lives.
Worth
(uncountable) Merit, excellence.
Our new director is a man whose worth is well acknowledged.
Cost
(obsolete) Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.en
Worth
(uncountable) Wealth, fortune, riches, property, possessions.
Cost
Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
Worth
(uncountable) An amount that could be achieved or produced in a specified time.
Cost
(obsolete) A rib; a side.
Worth
High social standing, noble rank.
Cost
(heraldry) A cottise.
Worth
To be, become, betide.
Woe worth the man that crosses me.
Cost
A rib; a side; a region or coast.
Betwixt the costs of a ship.
Worth
To be; to become; to betide; - now used only in the phrases, woe worth the day, woe worth the man, etc., in which the verb is in the imperative, and the nouns day, man, etc., are in the dative. Woe be to the day, woe be to the man, etc., are equivalent phrases.
I counsel . . . to let the cat worthe.
He worth upon [got upon] his steed gray.
Cost
See Cottise.
Worth
Valuable; of worthy; estimable; also, worth while.
It was not worth to make it wise.
Cost
The amount paid, charged, or engaged to be paid, for anything bought or taken in barter; charge; expense; hence, whatever, as labor, self-denial, suffering, etc., is requisite to secure benefit.
One day shall crown the alliance on 't so please you,Here at my house, and at my proper cost.
At less cost of life than is often expended in a skirmish, [Charles V.] saved Europe from invasion.
Worth
Equal in value to; furnishing an equivalent for; proper to be exchanged for.
A ring he hath of mine worth forty ducats.
All our doings without charity are nothing worth.
If your arguments produce no conviction, they are worth nothing to me.
Cost
Loss of any kind; detriment; pain; suffering.
I know thy trains,Though dearly to my cost, thy gins and toils.
Worth
Deserving of; - in a good or bad sense, but chiefly in a good sense.
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell.
This is life indeed, life worth preserving.
Cost
Expenses incurred in litigation.
Worth
Having possessions equal to; having wealth or estate to the value of.
At Geneva are merchants reckoned worth twenty hundred crowns.
Cost
To require to be given, expended, or laid out therefor, as in barter, purchase, acquisition, etc.; to cause the cost, expenditure, relinquishment, or loss of; as, the ticket cost a dollar; the effort cost his life.
A diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats.
Though it cost me ten nights' watchings.
Worth
That quality of a thing which renders it valuable or useful; sum of valuable qualities which render anything useful and sought; value; hence, often, value as expressed in a standard, as money; equivalent in exchange; price.
What 's worth in anythingBut so much money as 't will bring?
Cost
To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Worth
Value in respect of moral or personal qualities; excellence; virtue; eminence; desert; merit; usefulness; as, a man or magistrate of great worth.
To be of worth, and worthy estimation.
As none but she, who in that court did dwell,Could know such worth, or worth describe so well.
To think how modest worth neglected lies.
Cost
The total spent for goods or services including money and time and labor
Worth
An indefinite quantity of something having a specified value;
10 dollars worth of gasoline
Cost
The property of having material worth (often indicated by the amount of money something would bring if sold);
The fluctuating monetary value of gold and silver
He puts a high price on his services
He couldn't calculate the cost of the collection
Worth
The quality that renders something desirable or valuable or useful
Cost
Value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something;
The cost in human life was enormous
The price of success is hard work
What price glory?
Worth
French couturier (born in England) regarded as the founder of Parisian haute couture; noted for introducing the bustle (1825-1895)
Cost
Be priced at;
These shoes cost $100
Worth
Having sufficient worth;
An idea worth considering
A cause deserving or meriting support
The deserving poor
Cost
Require to lose, suffer, or sacrifice;
This mistake cost him his job
Worth
Having a specified value;
Not worth his salt
Worth her weight in gold
