interest
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A sense of concern with and curiosity about someone or something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
intruhstSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪntɹəst
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A sense of concern with and curiosity about someone or something
uncountable
A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity.
law
A right or legal share of something; a financial involvement with something
“They have interests all over the world.”
uncountable
Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.
uncountable
Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance.
often in the plural
The persons and companies interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively.
verb
To engage the attention of; to awaken interest in; to excite emotion or passion in, in behalf of a person or thing.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A sense of concern with and curiosity about someone or something
Used this way, interest is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Curious and questioning
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use interest
- “They said nothing of great interest.”noun
- “How much interest do you pay on your mortgage?”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Having or showing interest.
Arousing or holding the attention.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Of financial obligations on which interest is paid.
Interest paid on loans.
A social group whose members control some field of activity and who have common aims.
The percentage of a sum of money charged for its use.
Charging a relatively small percentage of the amount borrowed.
An accounting method used in the merging of companies.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
In an interesting manner.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.