costly
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
costing a lot of money.
of high cost; expensive. Often used to imply that the price is higher than expected or justified.
Simple“Buying a new car can be very costly when you include insurance.”
In context“The renovation proved more costly than the initial estimates suggested, forcing the family to dip into their long-term savings.”
PitfallThe repair was very costly for me. The repair was very costly.While 'expensive' often takes 'for someone', 'costly' is usually used as a direct description of the item or event itself.
Antonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
causing a lot of problems, damage, or the loss of something important.
resulting in great loss, damage, or sacrifice; having negative consequences that are difficult to recover from.
Simple“A costly mistake at work resulted in the company losing a big client.”
In context“The general's decision to delay the retreat proved to be a costly error that resulted in heavy casualties.”
Antonyms
Usage costly items
“Governments have pledged costly aid packages to help the sector.”
“Erin says when she posted about her costly decision over fertility treatment, she got thousands of comments from people who "can't believe this is even a thing".”
From Middle English costly, costely, costeley, equivalent to cost + -ly.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.