What does cost mean?

Definitions for cost
kɔst, kɒstcost

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

Princeton's WordNet

  1. costnoun

    the total spent for goods or services including money and time and labor

  2. monetary value, price, costnoun

    the property of having material worth (often indicated by the amount of money something would bring if sold)

    "the fluctuating monetary value of gold and silver"; "he puts a high price on his services"; "he couldn't calculate the cost of the collection"

  3. price, cost, tollverb

    value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something

    "the cost in human life was enormous"; "the price of success is hard work"; "what price glory?"

  4. cost, beverb

    be priced at

    "These shoes cost $100"

  5. costverb

    require to lose, suffer, or sacrifice

    "This mistake cost him his job"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. COSTnoun

    Etymology: kost, Dutch. As this word is found in the remotest Teutonick dialects, even in the Islandick, it is not probably derived to us from the Latin consto; though it is not unlikely that the French couster comes from the Latin.

    The city woman bears
    The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders. William Shakespeare.

    Let foreign princes vainly boast
    The rude effects of pride and cost
    Of vaster fabricks, to which they
    Contribute nothing but the pay. Edmund Waller.

    While he found his daughter maintained without his cost, he was content to be deaf to any noise of infamy. Philip Sidney, b. ii.

    I shall never hold that man my friend,
    Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost,
    To ransom home revolted Mortimer. William Shakespeare, Henry IV.

    Have we eaten at all of the king’s cost? or hath he given us any gift? 2 Sa. xix. 42.

    And wilt thou, O cruel boast!
    Put poor nature to such cost?
    O! ’twill undo our common mother,
    To be at charge of such another. Richard Crashaw.

    It is strange to see any ecclesiastical pile, not by ecclesiastical cost and influence, rising above ground; especially in an age in which men’s mouths are open against the church, but their hands shut towards it. Robert South, Sermons.

    He whose tale is best, and pleases most,
    Should win his supper at our common cost. John Dryden, Fables.

    Fourteen thousand pounds are paid by Wood for the purchase of his patent: what were his other visible costs I know not; what his latent, is variously conjectured. Jonathan Swift.

    What they had fondly wished, proved afterwards to their costs over true. Richard Knolles, History of the Turks.

  2. To Costverb

    pret. cost; particip. cost. To be bought for; to be had at a price.

    Etymology: couster, French.

    The dagger and poison are always in readiness; but to bring the action to extremity, and then recover all, will require the art of a writer, and cost him many a pang. Dryden.

Wikipedia

  1. Cost

    In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. In this case, money is the input that is gone in order to acquire the thing. This acquisition cost may be the sum of the cost of production as incurred by the original producer, and further costs of transaction as incurred by the acquirer over and above the price paid to the producer. Usually, the price also includes a mark-up for profit over the cost of production. More generalized in the field of economics, cost is a metric that is totaling up as a result of a process or as a differential for the result of a decision. Hence cost is the metric used in the standard modeling paradigm applied to economic processes. Costs (pl.) are often further described based on their timing or their applicability.

ChatGPT

  1. cost

    Cost refers to the amount of money or resources spent to produce or acquire a product, service or carry out an activity. It may include expenses related to labor, materials, production, operations, investments, or any other factors involved in the process. Costs can either be direct or indirect and can significantly impact the profitability and efficiency of a business or an individual's budget.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Costnoun

    a rib; a side; a region or coast

  2. Costnoun

    see Cottise

  3. Cost

    of Cost

  4. Costverb

    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; as, the ticket cost a dollar; the effort cost his life

  5. Costverb

    to require to be borne or suffered; to cause

  6. Costverb

    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

  7. Costverb

    loss of any kind; detriment; pain; suffering

  8. Costverb

    expenses incurred in litigation

  9. Etymology: [OF. coster, couster, F. coter, fr. L. constare to stand at, to cost; con- + stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Constant.]

Wikidata

  1. Cost

    In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. In this case, money is the input that is gone in order to acquire the thing. This acquisition cost may be the sum of the cost of production as incurred by the original producer, and further costs of transaction as incurred by the acquirer over and above the price paid to the producer. Usually, the price also includes a mark-up for profit over the cost of production. More generalized in the field of economics, cost is a metric that is totaling up as a result of a process or as a differential for the result of a decision. Hence cost is the metric used in the standard modeling paradigm applied to economic processes. Costs are often further described based on their timing or their applicability.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Cost

    kost, v.t. to bring a certain price: to require to be laid out or suffered:—pa.t. and pa.p. cost.—n. what is laid out or suffered to obtain anything: (pl.) expenses of a lawsuit.—adj. Cost′-free, free of charge.—n. Cost′liness.—adv. Cost′ly, of great cost: high-priced: valuable.—Cost price, the price which the merchant pays.—Prime cost, the price of production, without regard to profit. [O. Fr. couster (Fr. coûter)—L. constāre, to stand at.]

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. cost

    In heraldry, one of the diminutives of the bend. It is a fourth part of the bend, and is usually borne in couples, with a head between.

Editors Contribution

  1. cost

    The price of a product, goods or services.

    The cost was affordable.


    Submitted by MaryC on March 1, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. COST

    What does COST stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the COST acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. COST

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Cost is ranked #18423 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Cost surname appeared 1,503 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Cost.

    87% or 1,308 total occurrences were White.
    8.3% or 125 total occurrences were Black.
    3% or 46 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1% or 16 total occurrences were of two or more races.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'cost' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #664

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'cost' in Written Corpus Frequency: #717

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'cost' in Nouns Frequency: #106

  4. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'cost' in Verbs Frequency: #231

How to pronounce cost?

How to say cost in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of cost in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of cost in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of cost in a Sentence

  1. Craig McCann:

    If you're selling a high-cost product, typically you make it opaque.

  2. Giovanna Barberis:

    Because of the crisis in Ukraine the system is breaking down and there is a shortage of antiretroviral drugs. They cost money, they are expensive and whilst the international community is there to support, it is probably not enough.

  3. Delphine Geny-Stephann:

    Some surprising announcements or positions were recently made public about Galileo, considering the cost of the program and the investment that would represent, about 10 billion euros, we find it hard to imagine they could go it alone.

  4. Tidjane Thiam:

    Today, we are announcing an increase to our 2018 cost reduction target from 3.5 billion Swiss francs gross savings to at least 4.3 billion francs, driving our absolute operating cost base below 18 billion francs by 2018. For 2016, we aim to achieve 1.7 billion francs in cost savings.

  5. Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio:

    More than the government, they have to turn round the financial and production indicators, they have to work now on cost efficiencies.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

cost#1#489#10000

Translations for cost

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"cost." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/cost>.

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