interest
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɪntɹɛst/
ipa: /ˈɪnt(ə)ɹɪst/
ipa: /ˈɪnt(ə)ɹəst/
ipa: /ˈɪnt(ə)ɹɛst/
ipa: /ˈɪntəɹst/
note: Indic
ipa: /ɪɳʈ(ɛ)ˈrɛsʈ/
rhymes: -ɪntəɹɪst
rhymes: -ɪntɹɪst
rhymes: -ɪntəɹəst
rhymes: -ɪntɹəst
rhymes: -ɪntəɹɛst
rhymes: -ɪntɹɛst
rhymes: -ɪntəɹst
Forms: form: interests
form: enterest
form: interess
form: intherest
Etymology: From Middle English interest, from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse.
Senses: examples: text: Our bank offers borrowers an annual interest of 5%.
topics: business
finance
glosses: 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.
examples: text: You shall have your desires with interest
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
topics: business
finance
glosses: Any excess over and above an exact equivalent
examples: text: He has a lot of interest in vintage cars.
text: I have a lot of interest in doing online coding.
text: The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity.
examples: text: […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Over the past few years, however, interest has waxed again. A series of epidemiological studies, none big enough to be probative, but all pointing in the same direction, persuaded Emma Wilmot of the University of Leicester, in Britain, to carry out a meta-analysis. This is a technique that combines diverse studies in a statistically meaningful way.
ref: 2013 August 10, “Standing orders”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
text: Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
ref: 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy […]”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:
glosses: Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.
examples: text: When scientists and doctors write articles and when politicians run for office, they are required in many countries to declare any existing conflicts of interest (competing interests).
text: I have business interests in South Africa.
text: She has an interest in the proceedings, and all stakeholders' interests must be protected.
text: However he lost out, as other business interests whom he had alienated by his efforts to squeeze every penny of profit from the canal, supported the construction of the railway.
ref: 2025 June 25, Christian Wolmar, “How slow boats gradually gave way to rail”, in RAIL, number 1038, page 57:
glosses: An involvement, claim, right, share, stake in or link with a financial, business, or other undertaking or endeavor.
examples: text: Lexicography is one of my interests.
text: Victorian furniture is an interest of mine.
text: The main character's romantic interest will be played by a non-professional actor.
glosses: Something which, or someone whom, one is interested in.
examples: text: The conscience, indeed, is already violated when to moral good or evil we oppose things possessing no moral interest.
ref: 1809, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Friend, Essay VIII:
glosses: Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance.
examples: text: How can this infinite beauty, power and goodnes admit any correspondencie or similitude with a thing so base and abject as we are, without extreme interest and manifest derogation from his divine greatnesse?
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
glosses: Injury, or compensation for injury; damages.
examples: text: the iron interest;  the cotton interest
text: The ‘Railway Interest’ in Parliament constituted a very powerful lobby at this time [mid to late nineteenth century]. It was pledged to put the railway case forward in all matters involving that industry that came before Parliament. This body of MPs was composed of men who were nearly all railway directors or major shareholders. Their influence waned in the early twentieth century but earlier they formed a phalanx of robust opposition to just about every proposal for government regulation of matters pertaining to railways.
ref: 2023, David Brandon, The General Strike 1926: A New History, Pen and Sword Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 29:
coordinate_terms: industry
trust
syndicate
glosses: The persons and companies interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1921 Davidson Boughey, The Film Industry (London : Sir Isaac Pitman) p. 76
text: The arrangements made ensured that the total cost of censorship could be kept down to one-fifth of a penny per foot of film censored (and even one-tenth of a penny per foot in cases of Topical, Travel, Interest and Educational Films).
ref: 1924 March 5, Kevin O'Higgins, “CENSORSHIP OF FILMS ACT, 1923”, in Dáil debates, volume 6, number 22:
text: 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.
ref: 1939 March-April, J. Neill-Brown, "The Industry's Front Page" The Cine-Technician (London) Vol. 4 no. 20 p. 200
glosses: A genre of factual short films, generally more amusing than informative, especially those not covered by a more specific genre label.
Synonyms: sense: fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed
word: cost of money
sense: fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed
word: oker
Hyponyms: sense: Financial terms
word: accrued interest
sense: Financial terms
word: beneficial interest
sense: Financial terms
word: capitalized interest
sense: Financial terms
word: carried interest
sense: Financial terms
word: compound interest
sense: Financial terms
word: consumer interest
sense: Financial terms
word: controlling interest
sense: Financial terms
word: exact interest
sense: Financial terms
word: imputed interest
sense: Financial terms
word: insurable interest
sense: Financial terms
word: minority interest
sense: Financial terms
word: nominee interest
sense: Financial terms
word: open interest
sense: Financial terms
word: ordinary interest
sense: Financial terms
word: prepaid interest
sense: Financial terms
word: security interest
sense: Financial terms
word: short interest
sense: Financial terms
word: simple interest
sense: Financial terms
word: true interest cost
sense: Financial terms
word: unearned interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: future interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: human interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: legal interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: life interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: love interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: marine interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: place of interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: public interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: royalty interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: self-interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: special interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: terminable interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: undivided interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: vested interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: working interest
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from interest
word: adverse interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: adverse interest rule
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: by-interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: community interest company
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: counterinterest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: deposit interest retention tax
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: executory interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: expression of interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: fee simple subject to executory interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: hyperinterest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interest-bearing
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interest-free
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interest in land
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interest inventory
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interestless
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interest rate
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interest rate guarantee
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interest rate swap
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: interest-sensitive
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: in the interest of justice
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: in the interest of time
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: legitimate interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: national interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: negative interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: noninterest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: of interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: overinterest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: person of interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: point of interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: rate of interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: riding interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: rooting interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: self-interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: shifting executory interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: special interest group
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: springing executory interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: subinterest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: super-compound interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: supercompound interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: time-preference theory of interest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: uninterest
sense: Terms derived from interest
word: vest in interest
sense: Financial terms
word: deferred interest bond
sense: Financial terms
word: earnings before interest and taxes
sense: Financial terms
word: indication of interest
sense: Financial terms
word: insurable interest
sense: Financial terms
word: interest cover
sense: Financial terms
word: interest expense
sense: Financial terms
word: pooling of interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: conflict of interest
sense: Non-financial terms
word: interest group