Word.ws English Dictionary

worthy

Syllables: wor·thyUK/ˈwɜː.ði//ˈwɝ.ði/

worthy adjective: having worth, merit, or value.

Adjective

worthy (comparative worthier, superlative worthiest)

  1. Having worth, merit, or value.
    • These banished men that I have kept withal / Are men endued with worthy qualitiesc. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • This worthy mind should worthy things embrace.c. 1626, John Davies, The Original, Nature, and Immortality of the Soul
  2. Admirable or honourable.
    • that such iron moulds as these shall have autority to knaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest books, and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the more sorrow will belong to that haples race of men, whose misfortune it is to have...1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC
  3. Deserving, or having sufficient worth.
    • 1 And I saw in þe right hand of him that sate on the Throne, a booke written within, & on the backeside, sealed with seuen seales.
      2 And I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loude voice; Who is worthy to open the booke, and to loose the seales thereof?
      3 And no man in heauen, nor in earth...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 5:1–4
    • [I]t is a deed of higheſt charitie to help undeceive the people, and a vvork vvorthieſt your autoritie, […]1659, J[ohn] M[ilton], “To the Parlament of the Commonwealth of England with the Dominions therof”, in Considerations Touching the Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings out of the Church. […], London...
  4. Suited; suitable; befitting.
    • No, Warwick, thou art worthy of the sway.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • […] whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 3:11

Noun

worthy (plural worthies)

  1. A distinguished or eminent person.
    • That worthy one day, in our absence, being caught in the act of culpable talpicide, was rebuked by his mistress for disobeying his master's orders.1867, Journal of Agriculture, page 108
  2. (Confucianism) a good, wise and virtuous person.
    • Confucius and Mencius are revered as the sages and worthies of Confucianism.

Verb

worthy (third-person singular simple present worthies, present participle worthying, simple past and past participle worthied)

  1. (transitive) To render or treat as worthy.
    • And put upon him such a deal of man,
      That worthied him, got praises of the king […]c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • After having duly paid his addresses to it, he generally spends some time on the marble slab in front of the looking-glass, but without showing the slightest emotion at the sight of his own reflection, or worthying it with a song.1880, Sir Norman Lockyer, Nature

Proper noun capitalized: Worthy

Worthy

  1. A surname.
  2. A hamlet in Porlock parish, Somerset, England (OS grid ref SS8548).

worthy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

worthy in Hindi

deserving, or having sufficient worth
योग्य yogya

worthy in Tamil

தகுதியுள்ள, பெருந்தகவாளர், போற்றத்தக்க, மதிப்பார்ந்த, மதிப்புக்குரிய, மரியாதைக்குரிய

worthy in Marathi

worthy, qualified
योग्य yogya

worthy in Urdu

worthy, deserving
قابل qābil
More languagesFewer languages
worthy in Bengali
যোগ্য jōggo
worthy in Telugu
అర్హము arhamu
worthy in Malayalam
യോഗ്യമായ yōgyamāya
worthy in Kannada
ಗೌರವಾರ್ಹ, ಗಣ್ಯ, ಅರ್ಹ, ಉಚಿತ
worthy in Punjabi
ਬੀਬਾ bībā, جوگا jogā, ਜੋਗਾ jogā
worthy in Sanskrit
अर्हत् árhat, भद्र bhadrá
worthy in Vietnamese
hiền nhân

Examples of worthy in a sentence

  • And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know / More happiness.1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634...
  • The lodging is well worthy of the guest.1697, Virgil, “The Eleventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and...
  • The station is clearly well looked after, making it a worthy gateway to the resort.2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations”, in RAIL, number 948, page 27:
  • And it is a poor daub besides," the Emperor rejoined scornfully, as he stalked out of the gallery without worthying the artist with a look.1908, Edward Arthur Brayley Hodgetts, The court of Russia in the nineteenth century:

All 40 example sentences with worthy

Synonyms of worthy

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of worthy

Forms of worthy

Adjective
comparativeworthier
superlativeworthiest
Noun
pluralworthies
Verb
third-person singular presentworthies
present participleworthying
past participleworthied
pastworthied

Origin of worthy

From Middle English worthy, wurthi, from Old English *weorþiġ (“worthy”), equivalent to worth + -y. Cognate with Dutch waardig (“worthy”), Middle Low German werdig (“worthy”), German würdig (“worthy”), Swedish värdig (“worthy”), Icelandic verðugur (“worthy”).

From Middle English worthien, wurthien, from Old English weorþian (“to esteem, honor, worship, distinguish, celebrate, exalt, praise, adorn, deck, enrich, reward”), from Proto-Germanic *werþōną (“to be worthy, estimate, appreciate, appraise”), from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with German werten (“to rate, judge, grade, score”), Swedish värdera (“to evaluate, rate, size up, assess, estimate”), Icelandic virða (“to respect, esteem”).

Possibly from worthy.

Words formed from worthy

Phrases with worthy

Words that rhyme with worthy

Questions about worthy

What does worthy mean?
Worthy means having worth, merit, or value.
What is worthy in Hindi?
Worthy in Hindi is योग्य (yogya). See Worthy meaning in Hindi.
How do you use worthy in a sentence?
And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know / More happiness.
What part of speech is worthy?
Worthy can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce worthy?
Worthy is pronounced /ˈwɜː.ði/ (UK).

Words near worthy in the dictionary

  1. worths
  2. worthship
  3. worthwhile
  4. worthwhileness
  5. worthwile
  6. worthy
  7. worthying
  8. worthyman
  9. worthymen
  10. worthynesse
  11. worthynesses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worthy (page history and authors); Worthy (page history and authors); worthy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); योग्य (Marathi) (page history and authors); قابل (Urdu) (page history and authors); যোগ্য (Bengali) (page history and authors); worthy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); جوگا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); अर्हत् (Sanskrit) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-worthy.ogg.

Cite this entry: “worthy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/worthy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.