1. An amount, as of goods, services, or money, considered to be a fair and suitable equivalent for something else; a fair price or return.

2. Monetary or material worth: the fluctuating value of gold and silver.

3. Worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor; utility or merit: the value of an education.

4. A principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or desirable: "The speech was a summons back to the patrician values of restraint and responsibility" (Jonathan Alter).

5. Precise meaning or import, as of a word.

6. Mathematics. An assigned or calculated numerical quantity.

7. Music. The relative duration of a tone or rest.

8. Color. The relative darkness or lightness of a color: "I establish the colors and principal values by organizing the painting into three valuesdark, medium . . . and light" (Joe Hing Lowe).

9. Linguistics. The sound quality of a letter or diphthong.

10. One of a series of specified values: issued a stamp of new value.

1. To determine or estimate the worth or value of; appraise.

2. To regard highly; esteem. See synonyms at appreciate.

3. To rate according to relative estimate of worth or desirability; evaluate: valued health above money.

4. To assign a value to (a unit of currency, for example).