Cost

How to spell cost

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cost

What does cost mean?

1. nounThe amount of money needed to buy, make, or do something.
2. verbTo require a particular amount of money as a price.

Cost in a sentence

• noun

  The total cost of the renovation surprised the homeowners.

• verb

  A return train ticket can cost more than a short flight.

• noun

  Rising fuel prices pushed up the cost of every delivery.

• verb

  Replacing the boiler will cost several thousand pounds.

Where does cost come from?

Language of origin: French

This word arrived in English in the 1200s from Old French coster (also spelled couster), meaning 'to cost' or 'to stand at a price'. That French verb came in turn from the Latin constare, literally 'to stand together' or 'to stand firm', built from con- 'together' and stare 'to stand'. The idea was that a price is what something 'stands at', the fixed point where buyer and seller settle. The noun sense, the amount paid, grew directly out of the verb. Because the spelling has stayed short and phonetic ever since, it has avoided the silent-letter traps that snare its Latin cousins like 'constant' and 'circumstance', which share the same stare root.

How the word is built

• cost (single root, from Old French coster: to cost, to stand at a price)