cost
/kɔst/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.24 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;[…]."
- "Trying to rescue the man from the burning building cost them their lives."
- "the packaging of home-delivered products now accounts for 30% of the solid rubbish the US generates annually, and the cardboard alone costs 1bn trees."
- "though it cost me ten nights' watchings"
Etymology
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kɔst/
- British English: /kɒst/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
cost an arm and a leg
cost a pretty penny
cost out
cost the earth
cost up
how much does it cost
cost base
cost-benefit
Frequently Paired Words
at cost
cost and freight
cost avoidance
cost benefit analysis
cost center
cost centre
cost containment
cost control