interest
NOUN · English
Experimental / limited support
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The corpus records 11 senses of interest. Each sense below has its own Add to list, so you choose the one you mean.
Display information
Experimental coverage — measured below Partial on the number of recorded words, definitions, translations, word forms and pronunciation. Treat entries as evidence to check; meanings may be incomplete.
English is Experimental in Words. Support is measured, not declared: a language reaches Partial only when every measure meets its threshold, and a measure that has not been taken does not count. The development corpus holds 60 source-backed words in English. What is shown may be incomplete, and pronunciation audio, generated forms and generated examples are not offered.
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Definition: 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. From a source of medium confidence.
uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- Our bank offers borrowers an annual interest of 5%. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
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Definition: Any excess over and above an exact equivalent From a source of medium confidence.
uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- You shall have your desires with interest 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]:
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Definition: A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity. From a source of medium confidence.
uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- He has a lot of interest in vintage cars. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- I have a lot of interest in doing online coding. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- 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. 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:
- 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.” 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
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Definition: Attention that is given to or received from someone or something. From a source of medium confidence.
uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- […] 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. 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- 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. 2013 August 10, “Standing orders”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- 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." 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy […]”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:
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Definition: Advantage, welfare, or something that serves it. From a source of medium confidence.
in-plural · often · uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- The whole difference comes down to this, that Trotsky believed himself to 'represent the historical interests of the proletariat', while Stalin believed that he, Stalin, did so. 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume III: The Breakdown, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozkład (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 198:
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Definition: An involvement, claim, right, share, stake in or link with a financial, business, or other undertaking or endeavor. From a source of medium confidence.
countable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- 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). Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- I have business interests in South Africa. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- She has an interest in the proceedings, and all stakeholders' interests must be protected. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- 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. 2025 June 25, Christian Wolmar, “How slow boats gradually gave way to rail”, in RAIL, number 1038, page 57:
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Definition: Something which, or someone whom, one is interested in. From a source of medium confidence.
countable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- Lexicography is one of my interests. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- Victorian furniture is an interest of mine. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- The main character's romantic interest will be played by a non-professional actor. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
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Definition: Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance. From a source of medium confidence.
uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- The Conscience indeed is already violated when to moral good or evil we oppose things possessing no moral interest: […] 1809 September 7, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “THURSDAY, September 7, 1809”, in The Friend; a Literary, Moral, and Political Weekly Paper, […], number 4, Penrith, Cumbria: […] J. Brown; and sold by Messrs. Longman and Co. […], and Clement, […], →OCLC, page 52:
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Definition: Injury, or compensation for injury; damages. From a source of medium confidence.
obsolete · rare · uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- 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? 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
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Definition: The persons and companies interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively. From a source of medium confidence.
in-plural · often · uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- the iron interest; the cotton interest Usage example — not an attested quotation.
- 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. 2023, David Brandon, The General Strike 1926: A New History, Pen and Sword Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 29:
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Definition: A genre of factual short films, generally more amusing than informative, especially those not covered by a more specific genre label. From a source of medium confidence.
attributive · historical · uncountable · usually
No translation has been attempted for this sense.
- 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. Usage example — not an attested quotation. 1921 Davidson Boughey, The Film Industry (London : Sir Isaac Pitman) p. 76
- 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). 1924 March 5, Kevin O'Higgins, “CENSORSHIP OF FILMS ACT, 1923”, in Dáil debates, volume 6, number 22:
- 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. Usage example — not an attested quotation. 1939 March-April, J. Neill-Brown, "The Industry's Front Page" The Cine-Technician (London) Vol. 4 no. 20 p. 200
No paradigm has been compiled for this word yet.
Etymology: From Middle English interest, from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse. From a source of medium confidence.
No related word is recorded for this word.