Meaning & use
worthless
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparable
Having no value in money or usefulness.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a worthless coin, the coin is worthless.
Patterns
- worthless to someone
- virtually worthless
The old stamps turned out to be worthless.
Without the key, the lock is worthless.
His promise was worthless.
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Having no good qualities, or seen as not deserving respect; said about people or their feelings.
Grammar: Can be harsh about a person: feel worthless; a worthless villain.
Patterns
- feel worthless
- make someone feel worthless
Constant criticism made him feel worthless.
The ruler called his enemies worthless traitors.
She refused to see herself as worthless.
Word forms
| comparative | more worthless |
|---|---|
| superlative | most worthless |
Common combinations
- feel worthless
- Failure can make anyone feel worthless.
- virtually worthless
- The shares are now virtually worthless.
- worthless piece of paper
- Without a signature, the contract is a worthless piece of paper.
- worthless advice
- His advice proved worthless in practice.
- render worthless
- The new law rendered the old licenses worthless.
Synonyms and how they differ
- valueless
- Valueless is formal and mostly about money or usefulness, and it sounds less harsh than worthless.
- useless
- Useless says something cannot do its job, while worthless says it has no value at all.
- pointless
- Pointless describes actions that serve no purpose, not objects with no value.
- trashy
- Trashy is informal and implies low quality, not that something has no worth.
Opposites
Word family
- worth noun
- value or merit
- worthlessly adverb
- in a worthless way, rare
- worthlessness noun
- the quality of having no value
- worthy adjective
- deserving respect or attention
- worthwhile adjective
- important enough to be worth the effort
Commonly confused: worthless or priceless? worthless or worthy?
worthless vs priceless
Priceless means so valuable it cannot be priced, which is nearly the opposite of worthless, although both seem to lack a price.
worthless vs worthy
Worthy means deserving, while worthless means having no value at all.
Practice
After the company collapsed, its shares became ____.
Choose one answer.
Worthless means having no value, which is what shares of a collapsed company become. Priceless means extremely valuable, and the others are positive.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “worthless”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.