Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An amount paid or required in payment for a purchase; a price.
  • noun The expenditure of something, such as time or labor, necessary for the attainment of a goal.
  • noun Law Charges incurred in bringing litigation, including court fees and charges that may be payable by the losing party, but usually not including attorneys' fees.
  • intransitive verb To require a specified payment, expenditure, effort, or loss.
  • intransitive verb To have as a price.
  • intransitive verb To cause to lose, suffer, or sacrifice.
  • intransitive verb To estimate or determine the cost of.
  • idiom (at all costs) Regardless of the expense or effort involved; by any means.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Manner; way and means.
  • noun Quality; condition; property; value; worth.
  • To require the expenditure of (something valuable) in exchange, purchase, or payment; be of the price of; be acquired in return for: as, it cost five dollars.
  • In general, to require (as a thing or result to be desired) an expenditure of any specified thing, as time or labor; be done or acquired at the expense of, as of pain or loss; occasion or bring on (especially something evil) as a result.
  • noun Costmary.
  • noun A rib or side.
  • noun In heraldry, same as cottise.
  • noun The equivalent or price given for a thing or service exchanged, purchased, or paid for; the amount paid, or engaged to be paid, for some thing or some service: as, the cost of a suit of clothes; the cost of building a house.
  • noun That which is expended; outlay of any kind, as of money, labor, time, or trouble; expense or expenditure in general; specifically, great expense: as, the work was done at public cost.
  • noun plural In law: The sums fixed by law or allowed by the court for charges in a suit, awarded usually against the party losing, and in favor of the party prevailing or his attorney.
  • noun The sum which the law allows to the attorney, to be paid by his client.
  • noun Synonyms and Expense, Worth, etc. See price.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A rib; a side; a region or coast.
  • noun (Her.) See Cottise.
  • noun The amount paid, charged, or engaged to be paid, for anything bought or taken in barter; charge; expense; hence, whatever, as labor, self-denial, suffering, etc., is requisite to secure benefit.
  • noun Loss of any kind; detriment; pain; suffering.
  • noun (Law) Expenses incurred in litigation.
  • noun See under Bill.
  • noun without outlay or expense.
  • transitive verb To require to be given, expended, or laid out therefor, as in barter, purchase, acquisition, etc.; to cause the cost, expenditure, relinquishment, or loss of.
  • transitive verb To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
  • transitive verb to require or occasion a large outlay of money, or much labor, self-denial, suffering, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
  • noun A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
  • verb To incur a charge, a price.
  • verb To cause something to be lost.
  • verb To calculate or estimate a value.
  • noun Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
  • noun Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the property of having material worth (often indicated by the amount of money something would bring if sold)
  • noun value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something
  • verb require to lose, suffer, or sacrifice
  • verb be priced at
  • noun the total spent for goods or services including money and time and labor

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from coster, to cost, from Latin cōnstāre, to be fixed, cost; see constant.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cost, coust, from costen ("to cost"), see below.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster ("to cost"), from Medieval Latin costare, from Latin constare ("stand together, stand at, cost"), from com- + stare ("stand").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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”).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cost.

Examples

  • Implementing the changes will cost $666 million -- that big sucking sound you hear is the $$cost$$ of more BUSH lies.

    OpEdNews - Quicklink: U.S. Medicare contract reform plan needs work: GAO 2005

  • VIEW FAVORITES yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'U.S. Medicare contract reform plan needs work: GAO'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Implementing the changes will cost $666 million -- that big sucking sound you hear is the $$cost$$ of more BUSH lies.'

    OpEdNews - Quicklink: U.S. Medicare contract reform plan needs work: GAO 2005

  • The main reason was the sharp drop in oil prices and me steady growth in Brazil's domestic petroleum production, e.g., about 212 million barrels in 1988 at an estimated cost of $20 per barrel versus an “estimated cost” of alcohol of $45 per barrel according to Young (1989).

    Chapter 7 1993

  • The second reason is, that the cost of living in cities (as has been ascertained) is about double what it is in the country -- to this _cost_ we must _add_, for the

    Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject E. N. [Editor] Elliott

  • "I very much doubt whether we can get it at all; but it must be had, cost _what it may_ -- ay, _cost what it may_."

    The Boy Hunters Mayne Reid 1850

  • Shifts in the AS Curve changes in the cost of inputs (any cost that would cause firms to offer more or less goods for sale at EVERY price)  cost of inputs cost of inputs leftward shift rightward shift

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • Made Popular: 8 hours 44 min ago - they steal millions to build mansions for their kin. cost for infrared radar to detect small boats on ocean: couple $mil. cost to shell Somali coast: another few $mil. cost to burn villages harboring, or benefitting (like those mansions) pirates, & wipe that smile off twizzle stick's face: $cost of matches.

    Yahoo! Buzz US: Top Stories 2009

  • I-Mate Ultimate 8502 cost 300usd iMate Ultimate 5150 cost$200. 00usd iMate Ultimate 6150 cost$ 230. 20usd iMate Ultimate 7150 cost $252. 60usd iMate Ultimate 8150 cost $285. 50usd iMate Ultimate 9150 cost $292. 30usd

    Treo Forum - Treonauts 2008

  • I-Mate Ultimate 8502 cost 300usd iMate Ultimate 5150 cost$200. 00usd iMate Ultimate 6150 cost$ 230. 20usd iMate Ultimate 7150 cost $252. 60usd iMate Ultimate 8150 cost $285. 50usd iMate Ultimate 9150 cost $292. 30usd

    Treo Forum - Treonauts 2008

  • I-Mate Ultimate 8502 cost 300usd iMate Ultimate 5150 cost$200. 00usd iMate Ultimate 6150 cost$ 230. 20usd iMate Ultimate 7150 cost $252. 60usd iMate Ultimate 8150 cost $285. 50usd iMate Ultimate 9150 cost $292. 30usd

    Treo Forum - Treonauts 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.