face value
face value — noun
1. the official amount of money printed on a coin, banknote, stamp, ticket, or fina
the official amount of money printed on a coin, banknote, stamp, ticket, or financial document, which may be different from what people actually pay for it
The old coin has a face value of ten cents but collectors pay over two hundred dollars for it.
collocation: face value of [amount]
Takeshi checked the face value of the stamp before putting it in his album.
First-class stamps still have a face value printed in the corner.
The concert ticket listed a face value of fifty dollars, but Trang paid nearly twice that online.
Each savings bond is sold below its face value and gains interest over time.
- nominal value
more formal term, used especially for bonds and stocks
- par value
technical term in finance, usually the same as face value
- market value
what buyers are actually willing to pay
- collector value
what collectors will pay for rare items
文法句型
the face value of [coin/stamp/banknote]
用法筆記
Often contrasted with market value or collector value, which can be much higher or lower. For financial documents such as bonds and stock certificates, face value is also called par value.
常見錯誤
2. the way something appears to be when you first encounter it, without looking for
the way something appears to be when you first encounter it, without looking for hidden truth or checking whether it is correct
Rania took her colleague's promise at face value and was hurt when he broke it.
pattern: take [something] at face value
The lawyer warned her client not to accept the contract at face value.
Owen learned the hard way that you cannot take online job advertisements at face value.
Eshe read the email at face value and missed the hidden criticism between the lines.
The manager took the sales figures at face value until an audit revealed serious accounting errors.
- surface value
less common, same meaning
- apparent meaning
more formal and explicit
- hidden meaning
the real intention behind the words
- subtext
the unspoken message
文法句型
take [something] at face value
accept [something] at face value
用法筆記
Almost always appears in the fixed phrase 'take/accept something at face value.' The noun itself is rarely used alone for this sense.