different between avail vs worth
avail
English
Etymology
From Middle English availen (“to be of use”), from Old French a (“to”) + vail (from valoir (“to be worth”)).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /??ve?l/
- Rhymes: -e?l
Verb
avail (third-person singular simple present avails, present participle availing, simple past and past participle availed)
- (transitive, often reflexive) To turn to the advantage of.
- (transitive) To be of service to.
- (transitive) To promote; to assist.
- (intransitive) To be of use or advantage; to answer or serve the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object.
- (India, Africa, elsewhere proscribed) To provide; to make available.
Antonyms
- disavail
Derived terms
- available
- disavail
Related terms
Translations
Noun
avail (plural avails)
- Effect in achieving a goal or aim; purpose, use (now usually in negative constructions). [from 15thc.]
- Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
- 2014, Paul Doyle, "Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter", The Guardian, 18 October:
- At half-time, Poyet replaced Wes Brown with Liam Bridcutt in the heart of defence and sent out the rest of the players to atone for their first-half mistakes. To no avail.
- (now only US) Proceeds; profits from business transactions. [from 15thc.]
- 1862, Elijah Porter Barrows, The State And Slavery
- the avails of their own industry
- 1862, Elijah Porter Barrows, The State And Slavery
- (television, advertising) An advertising slot or package.
- (US, politics, journalism) A press avail.
- (Britain, acting) Non-binding notice of availability for work.
- (oil industry) A readily available stock of oil.
- (obsolete) Benefit; value, profit; advantage toward success. [15th-19thc.]
- (obsolete, poetic) Effort; striving.
Usage notes
- (success or benefit): Very often encountered in negative phrases, such as of or to no or little avail.
Translations
Anagrams
- Alavi, Alvia, Avila
avail From the web:
- what avail means
- what available on hbo max
- what available balance and current balance
- what availability
- what available on hulu
- what available on disney plus
- what available on netflix
- what availability do you have
worth
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /w???/
- (General American) IPA(key): /w??/
- Rhymes: -??(?)?, -?(?)?
Etymology 1
From Middle English worth, from Old English weorþ, from Proto-Germanic *werþaz (“worthy, valuable”); from Proto-Indo-European *wert-.
Cognate with Dutch waard (adjective), Low German weert (adjective), German wert, Wert, Swedish värd, Welsh gwerth.
Adjective
worth (not comparable)
- Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for.
- Deserving of.
- (obsolete, except in Scots) Valuable, worthwhile.
- Making a fair equivalent of, repaying or compensating.
Usage notes
The modern adjectival senses of worth compare two noun phrases, prompting some sources to classify the word as a preposition. Most, however, list it an adjective, some with notes like "governing a noun with prepositional force." Fowler's Modern English Usage says, "the adjective worth requires what is most easily described as an object."
Joan Maling (1983) shows that worth is best analysed as a preposition rather than an adjective. CGEL (2002) analyzes it as an adjective.
Compare:
- Organic strawberries are worth paying extra money for.
- It's worth paying extra money for organic strawberries.
When "worth" is used as an adjective of a subject, the verb "to be" (usually associated with "worth") is singular or plural in accordance with the subject (in the first example, in the plural). In the other case, shown in the second example, the subject is the pronoun "it".
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
worth (countable and uncountable, plural worths)
- (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
- (uncountable) Merit, excellence.
- Our new director is a man whose worth is well acknowledged.
- (uncountable) Wealth, fortune, riches, property, possessions.
- (uncountable) An amount that could be achieved or produced in a specified time.
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English worthen, wurthen, werthen (“to be; exist; come into being; come into existence”), from Old English weorþan (“to come into being; be made; become; arise; be”), from Proto-West Germanic *werþan, from Proto-Germanic *werþan? (“to come about; happen; come into being; become”), from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn; turn out”).
Cognate with Dutch worden, Low German warrn, German werden, Old Norse verða (Norwegian verta, Swedish varda), Latin vertere.
Alternative forms
- word
Verb
worth (third-person singular simple present worths, present participle worthing, simple past worth or worthed, past participle worth or worthed or worthen)
- (obsolete, except in set phrases) To be, become, betide.
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 3, "Landlord Edmund"
- For, adds our erudite Friend, the Saxon weorthan equivalent to the German werden, means to grow, to become; traces of which old vocable are still found in the North-country dialects, as, ‘What is word of him?’ meaning ‘What is become of him?’ and the like. Nay we in modern English still say, ‘Woe worth the hour.’ [i.e. Woe befall the hour]
- Woe worth the man that crosses me.
- (May good fortune befall you, my friend.)
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 3, "Landlord Edmund"
Derived terms
- forworth
References
- worth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- worth in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- worth at OneLook Dictionary Search
- Joan Maling (1983), Transitive Adjectives: A Case of Categorial Reanalysis, in F. Henry and B. Richards (eds.), Linguistic Categories: Auxiliaries and Related Puzzles, vol.1, pp. 253-289.
Anagrams
- throw, whort, wroth
Scots
Etymology
From Old English weorþ
Adjective
worth (comparative mair worth, superlative maist worth)
- Valuable, worth while.
worth From the web:
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- what worthy mean
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- what worthless means
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