How to use costly in a sentence
40 example sentences · adjective
Costly means of high cost; expensive. Example: “The tennis player lobbed the ball, which was a costly mistake.”
Examples of costly by meaning
adjectiveOf high cost; expensive.
- a costly activity
- a costly error
- In the early days troubles were experienced with oscillation from the rod drive and with the transformers, but were overcome later, and these machines performed useful service until superseded by more modern locomotives less costly in maintenance.1960 December, Cecil J. Allen, “Operating a mountain main line: the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 743
More sentences with costly
- The tennis player lobbed the ball, which was a costly mistake.From the entry lob
- The inscription records her defeat of the country's enemies in a costly war.From the entry defeat
- A costly medical condition can bankrupt you if it doesn't kill you first.From the entry medical
- Owning a car is a mixed bag. It is convenient, but also costly.From the entry mixed bag
- I will be up front with you: what you are asking may be costly and difficult.From the entry up front
- It was possibly the costliest mistake in the organization's history.From the entry possibly
- The generals relied on costly human waves to make tiny conquests that they could sell to politicians and the population.From the entry human wave
- More starches as fillers, less costly than proteins, more money pocketed by the companies.2026 January 5, u/easyandthorny, “Is pâté a healthier option than flaked, grilled or in gravy?”, in r/catfood. From the entry cheapflation
- Currently, safflower harvesting relies mainly on manual multi-batch picking, which is both labour-intensive and costly.2024 August 10, Hui Guo, Tianlun Wu, Guomin Gao, Zhaoxin Qiu and Haiyang Chen, “Lightweight safflower cluster detection based on YOLOv5”…. From the entry multi-batch picking
- It will make it more complicated and costly than today, for all of us.2018 March 7, Daniel Boffey, Jennifer Rankin, “EU scorns UK’s ‘pick and mix’ approach to trade post-Brexit”, in The Guardian, London. From the entry Brexit
- Britain faces a hugely costly settling of accounts, whatever parti pris barristers may advise.2017 March 26, “The Observer view on triggering article 50”, in The Observer, →ISSN. From the entry parti pris
- At best they constitute a costly but useless frenzy of activity.2015, Edward J. Latessa, Paula Smith, Corrections in the Community, page 211. From the entry pseudoservice
- At the same time, these materials are still difficult and costly to produce.2014, Yune Leou-On, “The Philosopher's Singularity”, in SSRN, page 49. From the entry 3DTDS
- These proved prohibitively costly and led to the last of the dairymen quitting farming.2011, Cameron Clifford, Farms, Flatlanders, and Fords: A Story of People and Place in Rural Vermont 1890-2010. From the entry dairy farming
- Stepanov was then booked for a late tackle on Andrews and that would late prove very costly.2011 November 11, Rory Houston, “Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland”, in RTE Sport. From the entry late tackle
- Sytau's carbon content and constant volcanism make natural diamonds plentiful, if extremely costly and dangerous to recover.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Sytau. From the entry supervolcano
- Then deploy policies in a staged rollout to reduce this costly expense.2007, Mike Foster, “Domain Policies”, in The Secure CEO: How to Protect Your Computer Systems, Your Company, and Your Job, Wichita, Kan.…. From the entry PEBCAK
- Our local libraries are really Scheisse, the few books I can get are costly or rare.2007 March 11, Darkstar, “Re: How does Armenian fit into the Indo-European family?”, in sci.lang (Usenet). From the entry scheisse
- However, rent seeking by seeking favorable legislation can be costly (e.g., in contributions to campaigns).2006, Walter J. Wessels, “Public Choice and Externalities”, in Economics (Business Review Books), 4th edition, Hauppauge, N.Y.: Barron's…. From the entry rent-seeking
- The elaborate and costly provision for witnessing the solstitial event alone confirms this.2006, Jacqueline Ingalls Garnett, Newgrange Speaks for Itself: Forty Carved Motifs, page 18. From the entry solstitial
- This disease can be costly, but usually not to the mechs.1979, Daved V. Arel, “Switchitis”, in Mech, page 6. From the entry mech
- Such churches were immensely costly, and the experiment was never repeated.1972, Robert Payne, The World of Art. From the entry Nôtre Dame
- The damask of that era, with its fine texture and handsome pictorial patterns, was very costly.1959, Alice Winchester, editor, Antiques, volume 76, page 429. From the entry diaper
- He wears a pitambār – a costly silk garment, which is his traditional dress.1950, AJ Agarkar, Folk-dance of Maharashtra, page 78. From the entry pitambar
- Our costly mistakes have been when we mistook plausibility for ability and talkativity for talent.1923 September 17, “Men and Things”, in Evening State Journal, 34th year, Lincoln, Neb., →OCLC, page 12, column 1. From the entry talkativity
- Her establishment was costly on the one hand; her pleasures costly on the other.1905 March, William Hamilton Osborne, “The Transfer of Thorneycroft”, in The Smart Set, volume 15, number 3, page 95. From the entry burn the candle at both ends
- It’s costly to liquefy or compress for storage.2023 February 27, Peter Coy, “A Gold Mine of Clean Energy May Be Hiding Under Our Feet”, in The New York Times. From the entry embrittle
- Voice training is less costly and invasive than a throat operation, making it a more common starting point.2022, Z Paige L'Erario, “Voice Training Is a Medical Necessity for Many Transgender People”, in Scientific American, →DOI. From the entry voice training
- Australia’s 18 turnovers were a costly case of self-harm.2019 October 19, Robert Kitson, “England into World Cup semi-finals after bruising victory over Australia”, in The Guardian, London…. From the entry turnover
- It begs the question: will this be a costly mistake?2019 October 23, Pip Dunn, “The next king of Scotland”, in RAIL, page 50. From the entry the proof of the pudding is in the eating
- Due to its remote location, the community has traditionally relied on costly diesel generators to provide electricity, and propane for heat.2018 February 1, Taylor Fredericks, “Kwadacha Nation installs wood gasification system”, in Canadian Biomass Magazine. From the entry Tsek'ene
- Ejaculates are costly to produce for human males.2016, Todd K. Shackelford et al., “Human Sperm Competition”, in David M. Buss, editor, The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Volume 2.…. From the entry ejaculate
- Crowds of people mean congestion and costly land and labour.2013 August 17, “Down towns”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8849. From the entry obvious
- This type of mistake could be very, very costly.2009, Ron Ianeri, Options Theory and Trading, A Step-by-Step Guide to Control Risk and Generate Profits, page 244. From the entry apples to apples, oranges to oranges
- The Chrysler Nassau concept car, a less costly take on the Mercedes CLS, a sedan with coupelike styling.2007 January 7, Lawrence Ulrich, “Detroit Puts on a Show, and It’s Playing for Keeps”, in New York Times. From the entry coupelike
- Perhaps even more important, alumni are known quantities; the risk of a costly mishire is almost completely eliminated.2007 ·, Ronald Joseph Baker, Mind Over Matter, page 233. From the entry mishire
- However, as costly as grace is, ungrace costs more.2005, Dee Brestin, Woman of Purpose. From the entry ungrace
Meaning of costly
- adjective Of high cost; expensive.
Questions about costly in a sentence
- How do you use costly in a sentence?
- Costly is used as an adjective. For example: “The tennis player lobbed the ball, which was a costly mistake.”
- What is a short sentence with costly?
- “a costly activity”
- What does costly mean?
- Costly means of high cost; expensive.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: costly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use costly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/costly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
