What does interest mean?

Definitions for interest
ˈɪn tər ɪst, -trɪstin·ter·est

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word interest.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. interest, involvementnoun

    a sense of concern with and curiosity about someone or something

    "an interest in music"

  2. sake, interestnoun

    a reason for wanting something done

    "for your sake"; "died for the sake of his country"; "in the interest of safety"; "in the common interest"

  3. interest, interestingnessnoun

    the power of attracting or holding one's attention (because it is unusual or exciting etc.)

    "they said nothing of great interest"; "primary colors can add interest to a room"

  4. interestnoun

    a fixed charge for borrowing money; usually a percentage of the amount borrowed

    "how much interest do you pay on your mortgage?"

  5. interest, stakenoun

    (law) a right or legal share of something; a financial involvement with something

    "they have interests all over the world"; "a stake in the company's future"

  6. interest, interest groupnoun

    (usually plural) a social group whose members control some field of activity and who have common aims

    "the iron interests stepped up production"

  7. pastime, interest, pursuitverb

    a diversion that occupies one's time and thoughts (usually pleasantly)

    "sailing is her favorite pastime"; "his main pastime is gambling"; "he counts reading among his interests"; "they criticized the boy for his limited pursuits"

  8. interestverb

    excite the curiosity of; engage the interest of

  9. concern, interest, occupy, worryverb

    be on the mind of

    "I worry about the second Germanic consonant shift"

  10. matter to, interestverb

    be of importance or consequence

    "This matters to me!"

GCIDE

  1. Interestnoun

    Excitement of feeling, whether pleasant or painful, accompanying special attention to some object; concern; a desire to learn more about a topic or engage often in an activity.

Wiktionary

  1. interestnoun

    The price paid for obtaining, or price received for providing, money or goods in a credit transaction, calculated as a fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed.

    Our bank offers borrowers an annual interest of 5%.

  2. interestnoun

    A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity.

    He has a lot of interest in vintage cars.

  3. interestnoun

    Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.

  4. interestnoun

    A business or amorous link or involvement.

    I have business interests in South Africa.

  5. interestnoun

    Injury, or compensation for injury; damages.

  6. interestverb

    To attract attention or concern.

    It might interest you to learn that others have already tried that approach.

  7. Etymology: From interesse and interest (French: intérêt), from interesse, from interesse.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Interestnoun

    Etymology: interest, Latin; interet, French.

    O give us a serious comprehension of that one great interest of others, as well as ourselves. Henry Hammond.

    There is no man but God hath put many things into his possession, to be used for the common good and interest. Edmund Calamy.

    They, who had hitherto preserved them, had now lost their interest. Edward Hyde.

    Exert, great God, thy int'rest in the sky;
    Gain each kind pow'r, each guardian deity,
    That, conquer'd by the publick vow,
    They bear the dismal mischief far away. Matthew Prior.

    Endeavour to adjust the degrees of influence, that each cause might have in producing the effect, and the proper agency and interest of each therein. Isaac Watts.

    Wherever interest of power thinks fit to interfere, it little imports what principles the opposite parties think fit to charge upon each other. Jonathan Swift.

    'Tis int'rest calls off all her sneaking train. Alexander Pope.

    Did he take interest?
    ———— No, not take interest; not, as you would say,
    Directly, int'rest; mark what Jacob did. William Shakespeare.

    It is a sad life we lead, my dear, to be so teazed; paying interest for old debts, and still contracting new ones. Arbuthn.

    With all speed
    You shall have your desires with interest. William Shakespeare.

  2. To Interess, To Interestverb

    To concern; to affect; to give share in.

    Etymology: interesser, French.

    The mystical communion of all faithful men is such as maketh every one to be interessed in those precious blessings, which any one of them receiveth at God's hands. Richard Hooker.

    Our joy,
    Although our last not least; to whose young love,
    The vines of France and milk of Burgundy,
    Strive to be int'ress'd. William Shakespeare, King Lear.

    To love our native country, and to study its benefit and its glory, to be interessed in its concerns, is natural to all men. John Dryden, Æn. Dedicat.

    Scipio, restoring the Spanish bride, gained a great nation to interest themselves for Rome against Carthage. Dryden.

    This was a goddess who used to interest herself in marriages. Joseph Addison, on Medals.

    Ill successes did not discourage that ambitious and interested people. John Arbuthnot, on Coins.

  3. To Interestverb

    To affect; to move; to touch with passion; to gain the affections: as, this is an interesting story.

Wikipedia

  1. Interest

    In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct from a fee which the borrower may pay the lender or some third party. It is also distinct from dividend which is paid by a company to its shareholders (owners) from its profit or reserve, but not at a particular rate decided beforehand, rather on a pro rata basis as a share in the reward gained by risk taking entrepreneurs when the revenue earned exceeds the total costs.For example, a customer would usually pay interest to borrow from a bank, so they pay the bank an amount which is more than the amount they borrowed; or a customer may earn interest on their savings, and so they may withdraw more than they originally deposited. In the case of savings, the customer is the lender, and the bank plays the role of the borrower. Interest differs from profit, in that interest is received by a lender, whereas profit is received by the owner of an asset, investment or enterprise. (Interest may be part or the whole of the profit on an investment, but the two concepts are distinct from each other from an accounting perspective.) The rate of interest is equal to the interest amount paid or received over a particular period divided by the principal sum borrowed or lent (usually expressed as a percentage). Compound interest means that interest is earned on prior interest in addition to the principal. Due to compounding, the total amount of debt grows exponentially, and its mathematical study led to the discovery of the number e. In practice, interest is most often calculated on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis, and its impact is influenced greatly by its compounding rate.

ChatGPT

  1. interest

    Interest is a financial term referring to the amount charged by a lender to a borrower for the use of assets such as money, property, or other goods. It is typically calculated as a percentage of the principal amount and can be accumulated over the duration of the loan. Interest can also refer to the profit gained from investments such as savings accounts or bonds.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Interestnoun

    to engage the attention of; to awaken interest in; to excite emotion or passion in, in behalf of a person or thing; as, the subject did not interest him; to interest one in charitable work

  2. Interestnoun

    to be concerned with or engaged in; to affect; to concern; to excite; -- often used impersonally

  3. Interestnoun

    to cause or permit to share

  4. Interestnoun

    excitement of feeling, whether pleasant or painful, accompanying special attention to some object; concern

  5. Interestnoun

    participation in advantage, profit, and responsibility; share; portion; part; as, an interest in a brewery; he has parted with his interest in the stocks

  6. Interestnoun

    advantage, personal or general; good, regarded as a selfish benefit; profit; benefit

  7. Interestnoun

    premium paid for the use of money, -- usually reckoned as a percentage; as, interest at five per cent per annum on ten thousand dollars

  8. Interestnoun

    any excess of advantage over and above an exact equivalent for what is given or rendered

  9. Interestnoun

    the persons interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively; as, the iron interest; the cotton interest

  10. Etymology: [OF. interest, F. intrt, fr. L. interest it interests, is of interest, fr. interesse to be between, to be difference, to be importance; inter between + esse to be; cf. LL. interesse usury. See Essence.]

Wikidata

  1. Interest

    Interest is a fee paid by a borrower of assets to the owner as a form of compensation for the use of the assets. It is most commonly the price paid for the use of borrowed money, or money earned by deposited funds. When money is borrowed, interest is typically paid to the lender as a percentage of the principal, the amount owed to the lender. The percentage of the principal that is paid as a fee over a certain period of time is called the interest rate. A bank deposit will earn interest because the bank is paying for the use of the deposited funds. Assets that are sometimes lent with interest include money, shares, consumer goods through hire purchase, major assets such as aircraft, and even entire factories in finance lease arrangements. The interest is calculated upon the value of the assets in the same manner as upon money. Interest is compensation to the lender, for a risk of principal loss, called credit risk; and b forgoing other investments that could have been made with the loaned asset. These forgone investments are known as the opportunity cost. Instead of the lender using the assets directly, they are advanced to the borrower. The borrower then enjoys the benefit of using the assets ahead of the effort required to pay for them, while the lender enjoys the benefit of the fee paid by the borrower for the privilege. In economics, interest is considered the price of credit.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Interest

    in′tėr-est, n. advantage: premium paid for the use of money (in Compound interest, the interest of each period is added to its principal, and the amount forms a new principal for the next period): any increase: concern: special attention: influence over others: share: participation.—n. (Spens.) In′teress, interest, concern.—v.t. to concern deeply.—Equitable interest, such interest as is protected by courts of equity, although it might not be at common law; Landed interest (see Landed); Vested interest, an interest thoroughly secure and inalienable, except for public use and upon compensation.—Make interest for, to secure interest on behalf of. [O. Fr. interest (Fr. intérêt)—L. interest, it is profitable, it concerns—inter, between, esse, to be.]

  2. Interest

    in′tėr-est, v.t. to engage the attention: to awaken concern in: to excite (in behalf of another).—adj. In′terested, having an interest or concern: affected or biassed by personal considerations, self-interest, &c.—adv. In′terestedly.—n. In′terestedness.—adj. In′teresting, engaging the attention or regard: exciting emotion or passion.—adv. In′terestingly.—n. In′terestingness.—In an interesting condition, in the family way. [From obs. interess—O. Fr. interesser, to concern—L. interesse.]

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'interest' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #305

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'interest' in Written Corpus Frequency: #638

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'interest' in Nouns Frequency: #50

Anagrams for interest »

  1. sternite

  2. interset

  3. insetter

How to pronounce interest?

How to say interest in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of interest in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of interest in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of interest in a Sentence

  1. Justin Jones:

    It takes inmates like Justin Jones to really balance out and be mentors to younger inmates who probably will get out at some point, i don't think it would serve the best interest of the state of Oklahoma to execute Mr. James Coddington.

  2. Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Quirk:

    As a result of that we've gotten a lot of interest from various parties... in all of our assets in some form or fashion.

  3. Louis Michael Seidman:

    The U.S. has a national security interest in Ukraine, and it does appear that what the president was doing was putting that national security interest at risk in exchange for political benefits, if that is what happened, that is the core of what impeachment is about.

  4. Allyson Harwood:

    I think that they want this to be something that people see as a valid option for them when buying a truck, so The EcoBoost would be in everyone's best interest to have that as available at a fairly reasonable upgrade price.

  5. Jody Hice:

    We have at least now 62 different government agencies that have identified they have a problem with people using 'official time' -- that would be union activities, special interest and political activity for unions rather than the purpose for which they were hired by those individual agencies.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

interest#1#653#10000

Translations for interest

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • belangstellingAfrikaans
  • فائدة, اهتمامArabic
  • maraqAzerbaijani
  • интерес, лихваBulgarian
  • interèsCatalan, Valencian
  • úrok, zajímat, zájemCzech
  • buddWelsh
  • interesse, interessant, interessereDanish
  • interessieren, Interesse, ZinsGerman
  • ενδιαφέρον, συμφέρον, τόκοςGreek
  • intereso, interezo, interesiEsperanto
  • interés, interesarSpanish
  • interesBasque
  • kiinnostaa, etu, kiinnostus, intressi, korko, mielenkiinto, omistusFinnish
  • intérêt, intéresserFrench
  • suimScottish Gaelic
  • use, foayrManx
  • אינטרס, תשומת לב, עניין, ריביתHebrew
  • स्वारस्य, ब्याज, सूदHindi
  • érdek, érdeklődés, kamat, érdekelHungarian
  • interesseInterlingua
  • bungaIndonesian
  • interesse, interessare, attrarre, attenzioneItalian
  • 利息, 興味, 興味を引く, 利益, 関心, 利子Japanese
  • 흥미, 관심, 이자Korean
  • faîz, entres, riba, mereq, balkêşîKurdish
  • dominti, susidomėjimas, procentai, palūkanos, interesas, domėtis, domėjimasis, suinteresuotiLithuanian
  • procenti, interesēties, interese, interesēt, augļiLatvian
  • moni whakatupuMāori
  • പലിശ, താല്പര്യംMalayalam
  • faedah, bunga, minat, kepentinganMalay
  • interesse, belang, interest, interesseren, rente, belangstellingDutch
  • rente, interesse, interessere, interesseraNorwegian
  • odsetki, zainteresowanie, interesyPolish
  • interesse, interessar, jurosPortuguese
  • interesa, interes, interes material, preocupare, dobândăRomanian
  • интерес, заинтересовать, интересовать, интересоваться, заинтересоваться, процентRussian
  • kamata, камата, ȉnterēs, и̏нтере̄сSerbo-Croatian
  • úrokSlovak
  • ränta, intressera, intresseSwedish
  • ఆసక్తి, వడ్డీTelugu
  • faizTurkish
  • quan tâmVietnamese
  • nitedön, nitedVolapük
  • 利益Chinese

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"interest." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/interest>.

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    being essentially equal to something
    A equivalent
    B defiant
    C appellative
    D eloquent

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