How to Use costly in a Sentence

costly

adjective
  • The decision to wait could be a costly mistake.
  • They won the game, but their best player was injured, so it was a costly victory.
  • It was too costly to fix her car after the accident, so she decided to buy a new car instead.
  • We use less costly materials in our products.
  • Plus, these bulbs were costly to make.
    — Natalia Sánchez Loayza, Scientific American, 5 Feb. 2026
  • Brown knows how costly slow starts can be.
    — C.j. Holmes, New York Daily News, 1 June 2026
  • For him, this could prove costly.
    — Ruth Margalit, New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2025
  • Even a short-term gas tax pause could be costly.
    — Justin Papp, CNBC, 13 May 2026
  • But the progress along the front line has been very slow and costly.
    — Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 23 Jan. 2026
  • How costly those points could prove to be come May.
    — James Pearce, New York Times, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Old grills are hard to get rid of and costly to replace.
    — Larry Olmsted, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
  • The stakes are too high, and silence is too costly.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 1 Oct. 2025
  • The wrong choice will be costly in terms of the state budget.
    — Steven Greenhut, Oc Register, 9 Jan. 2026
  • Rosario’s error was the costliest play of the game.
    — Chris Kirschner, New York Times, 26 June 2026
  • Help a team avoid a costly mistake?
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 22 May 2026
  • And that can be a costly mistake.
    — Daniel De Visé, USA Today, 14 Mar. 2026
  • But the post-war pivot was costly.
    — Big Think, 28 Oct. 2025
  • Gilmore would also not be very costly.
    — Matthew Schmidt, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Aug. 2025
  • And the free passes have been costly.
    — Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Mar. 2026
  • But this approach can be costly.
    — Don Aviv, Time, 7 Mar. 2026
  • Duke also made that late, costly turnover.
    — Tim Rohan, NBC news, 30 Mar. 2026
  • Some are more costly than others.
    — Classical Music Critic, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2026
  • But the one mistake proved costly.
    — Matthew Fairburn, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2026
  • This is why waiting for the all-clear signal can be costly.
    — Jim Osman, Forbes.com, 27 June 2026
  • Parking decks are even costlier.
    — Beth Livesay, AJC.com, 26 June 2026
  • Renting near the beach has never looked so good — or so costly.
    — Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Kris Bubic could be the best of the bunch — and the least costly.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 10 June 2026
  • Ignore it, and the odds of a costly exit rise sharply.
    — Julian Hayes Ii, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
  • For Diego, a misplaced stroke could be costly.
    — Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2025
  • The detention has been costly – in more ways than one.
    — Zoe Sottile, CNN Money, 25 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'costly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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