cost

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒst/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔst/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑst/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒst, -ɔːst

Etymology 1

From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster (“to cost”), from Medieval Latin cōstō, from Latin cōnstō (“stand together”).

Verb

cost (third-person singular simple present costs, present participle costing, simple past and past participle cost or costed)

1. (transitive, ditransitive) To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) price.

   This shirt cost $50, while this was cheaper at only $30.

   It will cost you a lot of money to take a trip around the world.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:

     Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].

   • Incur definition

     to bring upon oneself or expose oneself to, especially something inconvenient, harmful, or onerous; to become liable or subject to (1 of 4 incur definitions)

   • Charge definition

     The amount of money levied for a service. (1 of 23 charge definitions)

   • Price definition

     The cost required to gain possession of something. (1 of 3 price definitions)
2. (transitive, ditransitive) To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.

   Trying to rescue the man from the burning building cost them their lives.

   • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     the packaging of home-delivered products now accounts for 30% of the solid rubbish the US generates annually, and the cardboard alone costs 1bn trees.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     though it cost me ten nights' watchings

3. To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     to do him wanton rites, which cost them woe

   • 1977, Star Wars:

     LUKE: "That little droid is going to cost me a lot of trouble."

4. To calculate or estimate a price.

   I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.

   • Calculate definition

     To determine the value of something or the solution to something by a mathematical process. (1 of 6 calculate definitions)

   • Estimate definition

     A rough calculation or assessment of the value, size, or cost of something. (1 of 3 estimate definitions)
5. (transitive, colloquial) To cost (a person) a great deal of money or suffering.

   I can give you the names, but it'll cost you.

   That's going to cost you!

Usage notes

The past tense and past participle is cost in the sense of "this computer cost me £600", but costed in the sense of 'calculated', "the project was costed at $1 million."

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English cost, coust, from costen (“to cost”), from the same source as above.

Noun

cost (countable and uncountable, plural costs)

1. Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.

   The total cost of the new complex was an estimated $1.5 million.

   We have to cut costs if we want to avoid bankruptcy.

   The average cost of a new house is twice as much as it was 20 years ago.

   • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

     According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.

   • Money definition

     A legally or socially binding conceptual contract of entitlement to wealth, void of intrinsic value, payable for all debts and taxes, and regulated in supply. (1 of 8 money definitions)

   • Required definition

     simple past and past participle of require
2. A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.

   Spending all your time working may earn you a lot of money at the cost of your health.

   The army won the battle decisively, but at a cost of many lives.

   • Consequence definition

     An effect; something that follows a cause as a result.

     1. An unwanted or unpleasant effect. (1 of 5 consequence definitions)

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English cost, from Old English cost (“option, choice, possibility, manner, way, condition”), from Old Norse kostr (“choice, opportunity, chance, condition, state, quality”), from Proto-Germanic *kustuz (“choice, trial”) (or Proto-Germanic *kustiz (“choice, trial”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwstus (“to enjoy, taste”).

Cognate with Icelandic kostur, German dialectal Kust (“taste, flavour”), Dutch kust (“choice, choosing”), North Frisian kest (“choice, estimation, virtue”), West Frisian kêst (“article of law, statute”), Old English cyst (“free-will, choice, election, the best of anything, the choicest, picked host, moral excellence, virtue, goodness, generosity, munificence”), Latin gustus (“taste”). Related to choose. Doublet of gusto.

Noun

cost (plural costs)

1. (obsolete) Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.(Can we add an example for this sense?)

   • Manner definition

     Mode of action; way of performing or doing anything (1 of 8 manner definitions)

   • Way definition

     To do with a place or places.

     1. A road, a direction, a (physical or conceptual) path from one place to another. (1 of 16 way definitions)

   • Means definition

     plural of mean

   • Course definition

     A sequence of events. (1 of 24 course definitions)

   • Contrivance definition

     A (mechanical) device to perform a certain task. (1 of 3 contrivance definitions)
2. Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.

   • Quality definition

     Level of excellence. (1 of 8 quality definitions)

   • Condition definition

     A state or quality. (1 of 8 condition definitions)

   • Property definition

     Something that is owned. (1 of 12 property definitions)

   • Value definition

     The quality (positive or negative) that renders something desirable or valuable. (1 of 11 value definitions)

   • Worth definition

     Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for. (1 of 4 worth definitions)

   • Wont definition

     One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.

   • Habit definition

     An action performed on a regular basis. (1 of 3 habit definitions)

   • Disposition definition

     The way in which something or someone is disposed or disposed of (in any sense of those terms); thus:

     1. Control over something, or the results produced by the exercise of such control; thus:
        1. The arrangement or placement of certain things. (1 of 10 disposition definitions)

   • Nature definition

     The way things are, the totality of all things in the physical universe and their order, especially the physical world in contrast to spiritual realms and flora and fauna as distinct from human conventions, art, and technology. (1 of 12 nature definitions)

   • Kind definition

     A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together. (1 of 9 kind definitions)

   • Characteristic definition

     Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

Derived terms

• at all costs

Related terms

• costen
• costning
• needs-cost

Etymology 4

From Middle English coste, from Old French coste, from Latin costa. Doublet of coast and cuesta.

Noun

cost (plural costs)

1. (obsolete) A rib; a side.
   • 1625 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Staple of Newes. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     betwixt the costs of a ship

   • Rib definition

     Any of a series of long curved bones occurring in 12 pairs in humans and other animals and extending from the spine to or toward the sternum. (1 of 12 rib definitions)

   • Side definition

     A bounding straight edge of a two-dimensional shape. (1 of 22 side definitions)
2. (heraldry) A cottise.

   Coordinate terms: bendlet, garter, riband

   • Heraldry definition

     The profession or art of devising, granting and blazoning coats of arms, tracing genealogies and ruling on questions of protocol or rank. (1 of 3 heraldry definitions)

   • Cottise definition

     A diminutive of the bendlet, containing one half its area or one quarter the area of the bend: a thin line borne around another charge.

   • Bendlet definition

     A diminutive of the bend, of the same shape, but only half the width of the bend.

   • Garter definition

     A band worn around the leg to hold up a sock or stocking. (1 of 2 garter definitions)

   • Riband definition

     Archaic form of ribbon. (1 of 2 riband definitions)

Anagrams

• C.O.T.S., COTS, CSTO, CTOs, OCTS, OSTC, Scot, Scot., TOCs, cots, scot

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔst/

Etymology 1

Deverbal from costar.

Noun

cost m (plural costs or costos)

1. cost

Derived terms

• preu de cost

Related terms

• costar

Etymology 2

From Latin costum.

Noun

cost m (uncountable)

1. costmary (Tanacetum balsamita)

   • Costmary definition

     An aromatic plant (Tanacetum balsamita), once used to flavour ale (prior to use of hops); also used as a bookmark in Bibles and other holy texts to dissuade silverfish and other pests.

   • Tanacetum Balsamita definition

     A taxonomic species within the family Asteraceae – costmary.

Further reading

• “cost” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “cost”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
• “cost” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Manx

Noun

cost m (genitive singular cost, plural costyn)

1. charge (monetary)

Derived terms

• costal

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *kust-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵews- (“to choose”).

Akin to Old Saxon kostōn (“to try, tempt”), Old High German kostōn (“to taste, test, try by tasting”) (German kosten), Icelandic kosta (“to try, tempt”), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 (kustus, “test”), Old English cystan (“to spend, get the value of, procure”), Old English cyst (“proof, test, trial; choice”), ċēosan (“to choose”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kost/

Noun

cost m

1. option, choice; possibility

   • Option definition

     One of a set of choices that can be made. (1 of 4 option definitions)

   • Choice definition

     An option; a decision; an opportunity to choose or select something. (1 of 8 choice definitions)

   • Possibility definition

     The quality of being possible. (1 of 4 possibility definitions)
2. condition, manner, way

   þæs costes þe ― on the condition that

Declension

Adjective

cost

1. chosen, choice

   • Chosen definition

     past participle of choose (1 of 2 chosen definitions)
2. tried, proven; excellent

   • Tried definition

     Tested, hence, proven to be firm or reliable. (1 of 2 tried definitions)

   • Proven definition

     Having been proved; having proved its value or truth.

   • Excellent definition

     Having excelled, having surpassed. (1 of 4 excellent definitions)

Declension

Old French

Etymology

From Latin constare, present infinitive of consto (“I stand firm (at a price)”).

Noun

cost m (oblique plural coz or cotz, nominative singular coz or cotz, nominative plural cost)

1. cost; financial outlay

Related terms

• coster

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kost]

Etymology 1

Verb

cost

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of costa

   • Costa definition

     Synonym of rib. (1 of 3 costa definitions)

Etymology 2

Back-formation from costa

Noun

cost n (uncountable)

1. cost

Declension

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English cost.

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /koːsd/, [kʰoːst]
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /kɔsd/, [kʰɔst]
• Rhymes: -ɔsd

Noun

cost m or f (plural costau)

1. cost
2. expense

   • Expense definition

     A spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds. (1 of 3 expense definitions)

Mutation

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “cost”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies