Value vs Worth
Value and Worth are two words that are often confused when it comes to their usage and meanings. The word ‘value’ is used in the sense of ‘importance’. On the other hand, the word ‘worth’ is used in the sense of ‘the cost of production’ of a particular thing or the ‘greatness’ of a particular person. This is the main difference between value and worth.
It is interesting to note that the word ‘worth’ is used to refer to the cost of an item when it is bought or sold’. A particular house may be worth several dollars in the real estate market. In such cases, worth determines how much a particular thing will sell in the market.
On the other hand, the word ‘value’ is used to stress the significance and the importance of a particular thing. For example your father might have purchased an article for you that might have incurred him only $17 in expenditure, but the article may be of great value to you. Observe the connotation of the word ‘value’ in expressions such as ‘value of time’, ‘value of reading’ and the like.
It is indeed true that some items in this world might be worthless when it comes to their price or cost of production, but on the other hand, they would prove to be of intrinsic value. The value of college education is one such thing in life that has intrinsic value. Some of the colored balls in the game of snooker have great intrinsic values.
Sometimes the word ‘value’ is used in the figurative expressions such as ‘cultural values’, ‘religious values’ and the like. The word ‘value’ is quite often used in mathematical and arithmetic problems. These are the important differences between the two words, namely, value and worth.