Interest Meaning
/ˈɪn.tɹɛst/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe 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.
nounAny excess over and above an exact equivalent
Sentence Examples
I have no interest in putting my money into your dreams.
A bank lends us money at interest.
Her research has generated interest around the world.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She has always had a strong ____ in learning new foreign languages.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The bank will charge a monthly ____ of five percent on any unpaid balance on your credit card.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English interest, from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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]:
"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:
"[…] 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:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She has always had a strong ____ in learning new foreign languages.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The bank will charge a monthly ____ of five percent on any unpaid balance on your credit card.