Worthless means having no value whatever. Not cheap — worth nothing at all.
It applies to objects and to efforts equally, so a worthless painting and a worthless promise are both nothing to anybody. The word is stronger than useless, which merely means it does not work. Applied to a person it is cruel, and feeling worthless is one of the standard descriptions of depression, which is why the word turns up in medical questionnaires. The opposite pair is valuable and priceless.
1adjectiveworthlessHaving no value or use at all.
“The shares turned out to be worthless.”
Old English
weorþlēas — worthless
Middle English
*worthles
English, today
worthless
From Middle English worthles, from Old English weorþlēas (“worthless”), equivalent to worth + less. Cognate with Dutch waardeloos (“worthless”), German wertlos (“worthless”), Swedish värdelös (“worthless”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA