mindmap root((昂贵)) costly implies a high price and may suggest sumptuousness, luxury, or rarity: the ~iest food graced her table. expensive may furthre imply a price beyond the thing's value or the buyer's means: the resort's shops seemed rather ~. dear implies a relatively high or exorbitant price or excessive cost usually due to factors other than the thing's intrinsic value: coffee was ~ during the war. valuable may suggest worth measured in usefulness or enjoyableness as well as in market value: iron is a ~ commodity. precious applies to what is of great or even incalculable value because scarce or irreplacable: our ~ natural resources. invaluable implies such great worth as to make valuation all but impossible: a good education is ~. priceless used like invaluable in a hyperbolic sense, adds a note of even greater intensiveness: a bon mot that was ~.