The document linked below appears to have been prepared for a college course related to "values." It offers a good definition by describing numerous qualities of "values."

The numbered items are from the document, and each is linked to the expanded description of the item:

1. All values are learned values.


2. Values are relatively enduring.


3. Values are not necessarily consciously known by either the individual or the society.


4. Values tend toward consistency, i.e., like values attract like values.


5. Values enshrine and impart a society's concepts of the morally desirable.


6. Values are inundated with emotional feelings and are held with strong conviction.


7. Values establish a disposition to act.

The rest of the document discusses a more academic classification of values, not as useful for our purposes.