cost.
To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) price.
Meaning & usage
To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) price.
This shirt cost $50, while this was cheaper at only $30.
It will cost you a lot of money to take a trip around the world.
To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
Trying to rescue the man from the burning building cost them their lives.
To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
To calculate or estimate a price.
I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.
To cost (a person) a great deal of money or suffering.
I can give you the names, but it'll cost you.
That's going to cost you!
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *sth₂éh₁yeti Proto-Italic *staējō Proto-Italic *staēō Proto-Italic *komstaēō Latin cōnstō Medieval Latin cōstō Old French costerbor. Middle English costen English cost From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster (“to cost”), from Medieval Latin cōstō, from Latin cōnstō (“stand together”).
Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
The total cost of the new complex was an estimated $1.5 million.
We have to cut costs if we want to avoid bankruptcy.
A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
Spending all your time working may earn you a lot of money at the cost of your health.
The army won the battle decisively, but at a cost of many lives.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *sth₂éh₁yeti Proto-Italic *staējō Proto-Italic *staēō Proto-Italic *komstaēō Latin cōnstō Medieval Latin cōstō Old French costerbor. Middle English costendeverb. Middle English cost English cost From Middle English cost, coust, from costen (“to cost”), from the same source as above.
Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
Where this word comes from
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.
A rib; a side.
A cottise.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English coste, from Old French coste, from Latin costa. Doublet of coast and cuesta.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.