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.
  • Still, the Bud Light saga has been a costly one for the brewer.
    — Dee-Ann Durbin, Fortune, 3 Aug. 2023
  • The next attempt proved costly, as Quinn sent a long corner kick to the box in the 42nd minute.
    — Drew Schott, The Arizona Republic, 9 Apr. 2022
  • But in the near term, the tie proved more costly for Washington.
    — Nate Davis, USA TODAY, 5 Dec. 2022
  • The Rays worked two walks to begin the game and both free passes proved costly.
    — Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 5 July 2024
  • The search for the Atocha’s treasure proved costly for Fisher.
    — April Rubin, BostonGlobe.com, 3 Dec. 2022
  • John sets forth a (very costly) plan to relocate the herd.
    — Katie Bowlby, Country Living, 19 Dec. 2022
  • That walk proved costly, bringing Judge to the plate in position to hit the three-run blast.
    — Andy Kostka, Baltimore Sun, 22 July 2022
  • The campaign has been nasty and costly, crowned among the most expensive in the nation.
    — Karen Heller, Washington Post, 13 May 2022
  • But in the long run, not leveraging AI at all will be even costlier.
    — Alon Goren, Forbes, 20 Sep. 2024
  • That stoppage of play proved costly, because the snap went high and slipped through the holder's hands.
    — The Courier-Journal, 5 Dec. 2022
  • By Deutsche’s metrics, however, New York is by far the costliest place to rent in the world.
    — Greg McKenna, Fortune, 27 June 2025
  • Renting near the beach has never looked so good — or so costly.
    — Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Longer-term, the curve may need to be reconstructed, tricky and more costly because the curve is raised above the ground.
    — Kenneth R. Gosselin, courant.com, 6 Mar. 2022
  • Analysts have said the months of bloody fighting in Bakhmut have been costly for both sides.
    — Jennifer Hassan, Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2023
  • The mistakes that were made are no more costly to anyone than myself.
    — Amiah Taylor, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2022
  • Getting a background check will be more costly in the coming year.
    — Olivia Evans, The Courier-Journal, 30 Dec. 2022
  • Fighting here began last spring and it's been bitter and costly to both sides.
    — Brian Mann, NPR, 24 Dec. 2024
  • More chefs will get out of the hamster wheel of costly meal creation and will set up shop in smaller, more low-key places.
    — Dana McMahan, The Courier-Journal, 28 Mar. 2023
  • These are less common and more costly than air-source options.
    — Pranshu Verma, Washington Post, 21 July 2022
  • The sale of assets, including the home, cars, etc., can also be costly.
    — Alicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 7 May 2024
  • The final preseason game against the Chiefs was costly for the Browns from an injury standpoint.
    — cleveland, 26 Aug. 2023
  • But the decision to change goaltenders proved costly, as Petersen was at fault for the score that put the Kraken back in front.
    — Dan Greenspan, ajc, 30 Nov. 2022
  • Over the years, tech titans have incurred costly fines in the millions, even billions at times.
    — Adriana Lee, WWD, 4 Nov. 2024
  • In late 2020, the Navy decided repairing the ship would be too costly and elected to send it to the scrapyard.
    — Andrew Dyer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Mar. 2022
  • In order to fuel such a costly organ, the researchers added, there was likely a trade-off with how our immune system functioned.
    — New Atlas, 9 July 2025
  • Without proper maintenance, homeowners could face more costly problems down the line.
    — Rachel Barber, USA Today, 11 July 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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