Word: interest Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English interest, from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse. Pronunciation: /ˈɪn.tɹɛst/, /ˈɪn.t(ə.)ɹɪst/, /ˈɪn.tɚ.ɛst/, /ˈɪn.tɚ.əst/, /ˈɪn.tɹəst/ 1. 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. Labels: uncountable, usually Example: Our bank offers borrowers an annual interest of 5%. 2. Any excess over and above an exact equivalent Labels: uncountable, usually Example: You shall have your desires with interest 3. A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity. Labels: uncountable, usually Example: He has a lot of interest in vintage cars. Example: I have a lot of interest in doing online coding. 4. Attention that is given to or received from someone or something. Labels: uncountable, usually Example: […] 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. Example: 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. 5. An involvement, claim, right, share, stake in or link with a financial, business, or other undertaking or endeavor. Labels: countable, usually Example: 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). Example: I have business interests in South Africa. 6. Something which, or someone whom, one is interested in. Labels: countable, usually Example: Lexicography is one of my interests. Example: Victorian furniture is an interest of mine. 7. Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance. Labels: uncountable, usually Example: The Conscience indeed is already violated when to moral good or evil we oppose things possessing no moral interest: […] 8. Injury, or compensation for injury; damages. Labels: obsolete, rare, uncountable, usually Example: 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? 9. The persons and companies interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively. Labels: in-plural, often, uncountable, usually Example: the iron interest; the cotton interest Example: 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. 10. A genre of factual short films, generally more amusing than informative, especially those not covered by a more specific genre label. Labels: attributive, historical, uncountable, usually Example: 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. Example: 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).