interest

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

English

Alternative forms

• enterest (obsolete)
• interess (obsolete)
• intherest (pronunciation spelling, suggesting an Irish accent)

Etymology

From Middle English interest, from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɪntəɹɪst/, /ˈɪntɹɪst/, /ˈɪntɹɛst/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪntəɹəst/, /ˈɪntɹəst/, /ˈɪntəɹɛst/, /ˈɪntɹɛst/, /ˈɪntəɹst/
• Rhymes: -ɪntəɹɪst, -ɪntɹɪst, -ɪntəɹəst, -ɪntɹəst, -ɪntəɹɛst, -ɪntɹɛst, -ɪntəɹst
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧est

Noun

interest (usually uncountable, plural interests)

2. (uncountable, finance) 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. [from earlier 16th c.]

4. (uncountable, finance) Any excess over and above an exact equivalent
6. (uncountable) A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity. [from later 18th c.]
8. (uncountable) Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.
10. (countable) An involvement, claim, right, share, stake in or link with a financial, business, or other undertaking or endeavor.

    Hyponyms: self-interest, enlightened self-interest, public interest; vested interest, special interest, controlling interest, security interest

12. (countable) Something which, or someone whom, one is interested in.

14. (uncountable) Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance.
15. (obsolete, rare) Injury, or compensation for injury; damages.
16. (usually in the plural) The persons interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively.

    Coordinate terms: industry, trust, syndicate

17. (historical, usually attributive) a genre of factual short films, generally more amusing than informative, especially those not covered by a more specific genre label
    • 1921 Davidson Boughey, The Film Industry (London : Sir Isaac Pitman) p. 76

      By interest films is meant a variety of subjects which cannot be classified under such recognized headings as fiction, travel, or topical. They include wonderful inventions, little known industries, applied art, feats of engineering, and other events capable of effective illustration.

    • 1939 March-April, J. Neill-Brown, "The Industry's Front Page" The Cine-Technician (London) Vol. 4 no. 20 p. 200

      At the top of Charing Cross Road is the "Tatler," which has specialised for a long time in a general sort of program, built up of about 15 minutes of news, a cartoon (sometimes two), an interest picture, occasionally a comedy, and nearly always a documentary.

Synonyms

• (fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed): cost of money, oker

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

interest (third-person singular simple present interests, present participle interesting, simple past and past participle interested)

1. To engage the attention of; to awaken interest in; to excite emotion or passion in, in behalf of a person or thing.

2. (obsolete, often impersonal) To be concerned with or engaged in; to affect; to concern; to excite.
3. (obsolete) To cause or permit to share.

Antonyms

• bore
• disinterest

Derived terms

• interested
• interesting

Translations

Further reading

• "interest" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 171.

Anagrams

• Steinert, ernstite, inertest, insetter, interset, sternite, tres-tine, trientes

Dutch

Alternative forms

• interesse (obsolete)
• intrest

Etymology

Doublet of interesse, ultimately derived from Latin interesse.

Pronunciation

Noun

interest m (plural interesten, diminutive interestje n)

1. (finance) interest

Synonyms

• rente

Descendants

• Negerhollands: interesse
• → Papiamentu: interest (dated)

Latin

Verb

interest

1. third-person singular present active indicative of intersum

References

• “interest”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “interest”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• interest in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Middle French

Noun

interest m (plural interests)

1. interest (great attention and concern from someone or something)