cost

English Online Dictionary. What means cost‎? What does cost mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒst/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔst/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑst/
• 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.
2. (transitive, ditransitive) To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
3. To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
4. To calculate or estimate a price.

5. (transitive, colloquial) To cost (a person) a great deal of money or suffering.

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.
2. A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.

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?)
2. Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.

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.
2. (heraldry) A cottise.

   Coordinate terms: bendlet, garter, riband

Anagrams

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

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [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)

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, 2025.
• “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
2. condition, manner, way

   þæs costes þe ― on the condition that

Declension

Strong a-stem:

Adjective

cost

1. chosen, choice
2. tried, proven; excellent

Declension

Old French

Etymology

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

Noun

cost oblique singular, 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

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

Derived terms

• costfawr (“costly”, adjective)
• costio (“cost”, verb)
• costus (“costly”, adjective)

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