Word.ws English Dictionary

not worth the candle

not worth the candle adjective: not worth the cost or trouble.

Adjective

not worth the candle (not comparable)

  1. Not worth the cost or trouble.

Origin of not worth the candle

Calque of French le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle.

Questions about not worth the candle

What does not worth the candle mean?
Not worth the candle means not worth the cost or trouble.
What part of speech is not worth the candle?
Not worth the candle is an adjective.

Words near not worth the candle in the dictionary

  1. not worth a tinker's curse
  2. not worth a whistle
  3. not worth beans
  4. not worth hell room
  5. not worth salt
  6. not worth the candle
  7. not worth the paper it is printed on
  8. not worth the powder
  9. not worth the powder and shot
  10. not worth writing home about
  11. not wrapped too tight

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: not worth the candle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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