[Vocabulary] priceless, invaluable - meaining

[tom3m]

What do 'priceless' and 'invaluable' mean. In dictionary, they're both described as very positive such as: very useful, cannot be replaced etc. My confusion probably comes from my mother tongue when we use literal translations of these words for negatives i.e. we have valuable + negative prefix in = invaluable must therefore mean sth that is not valuable.
Can you explain why there is no ambiguity possible. Yet, I understand that questioning two great online dictionaries may seem as a waste time, but I just find it interesting that there is a standard applied on other words (- negative prefix + adjective = negation of the adjective) and suddenly that does not work.

Thanks

 

[5jj]

If something is invaluable, its value is above calculation. It cannot be valued - any valuation would be too low. Its value is inestimable, incalculable.

 

[BobK]

:up: And it's never a waste of time to consult more than one dictionary. ;-)

I've just realized that the strangely-behaving word is not invaluable (='can't be valued') but valuable (which doesn't mean 'capable of being valued' as one might expect. Something might be capable of being valued at $0.01, but it's certainly not valuable. ;-)

b