Treasure is something valuable that's been hidden, lost, or carefully stored away. When pirates bury gold coins on a deserted island, that's treasure. When archaeologists discover ancient Roman coins buried for two thousand years, that's treasure too. The word captures both the value of what's found and the excitement of discovering it.

People use treasure as a noun to describe anything precious they want to protect or save, or as a verb to describe how they feel about it. A grandmother might keep a box of old letters as treasured memories. A collector might treasure a rare baseball card. When you treasure something, you care for it deeply because it means something special to you, whether because of its monetary worth, its aesthetic value, its rarity, or its personal significance.

The word also appears in treasure hunt, a game where people follow clues to find hidden prizes. Libraries and museums sometimes call their most important holdings treasures: rare books, famous paintings, or historical artifacts that can never be replaced.

What makes something a treasure isn't always its price. A smooth stone from your first beach trip might be worthless to everyone else but something that you personally treasure.