The difference between ‘value’ and ‘price’ : What our words say about us

The words we use say a lot about us and the way we think about the words we use says even more. This is something I considered whilst using Microsoft Word’s inbuilt thesaurus and comparing it to a much more thorough and useful one online. The difference was very telling, especially where Microsoft, money and the priorities of our society were concerned.

For the word ‘value’ for example, Microsoft came up with synonyms like price, worth and cost first – all very financially orientated words for what is really a very broad concept (admittedly this is less so for worth). The more complete thesaurus on the other hand came up with admire, application and appraise, to name the first three in the alphabetical list – a good variety of words relating to the multiple meanings of the word value.

Overall Microsoft came up with eight terms for value, five of which were financially orientated. By comparison, out of the first eight words the more thorough thesaurus came up with, only two were financial. Some were general synonyms for value and one was beauty, which got me thinking.