Interests

How to spell interests

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce interests

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does interests mean?

1. nounThe activities, subjects, or pursuits that a person enjoys or cares about.
2. nounShares, claims, or stakes that give a person or group an advantage in something.
3. verbEngages the attention or curiosity of someone (third person singular).

Interests in a sentence

• noun

  Her hobbies and interests include hiking and watercolour painting.

• noun

  The company sold its mining interests in three African countries.

• verb

  Nothing on the menu interests a fussy eater quite like dessert.

• noun

  The dating profile asked applicants to list their main interests.

• noun

  Powerful business interests lobbied hard against the new tax.

• verb

  The documentary interests anyone who follows current affairs.

Where does interests come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin phrase interest, which literally meant 'it concerns' or 'it makes a difference', formed from inter, meaning 'between', and est, meaning 'it is'. In medieval Latin the verb hardened into a noun describing a legal claim or a stake one had in something, especially compensation owed for a loss. English took it up in the fifteenth century, first in this financial and legal sense of a rightful share or a charge on borrowed money, and only later did it broaden to mean curiosity or the things that engage a person's attention. The plural 'interests' simply adds the regular -s ending and can mean either a person's hobbies and concerns or competing financial and political stakes. Because the middle is so often swallowed in speech (said roughly as 'IN-trists'), writers can be tempted to drop the second syllable, but the spelling keeps the full inter- intact.

How the word is built

• inter- (between)
• -est (from Latin 'est', it is)
• -s (plural/third-person ending)