Skip to main content
PlainSpell

cost

UK /kɒst/verb, noun

cost is spelled C-O-S-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 174 times per million words in written English, the 576th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, cost means “To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) price” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in cost?

Letters4: C-O-S-T
Syllables1
In writing174 times per million words; the 576th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is cost?

Cost appears 174 times per million words in written English, the 576th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce cost?

  • UK /kɒst/
  • British /kɔst/
  • /kɔst/

Cost has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-to_cost.ogg, En-us-cost.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with cost?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cost from its last stressed vowel (/ɒst/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: scot.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of cost

  • costs present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • costing participle, present
  • costed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cost mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) price.

    This shirt cost $50, while this was cheaper at only $30.

  2. 2

    To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.

    Trying to rescue the man from the burning building cost them their lives.

  3. 3

    To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.

  4. 4

    To calculate or estimate a price.

    I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.

  5. 5

    colloquialTo cost (a person) a great deal of money or suffering.

    I can give you the names, but it'll cost you.

noun

  1. 1

    Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.

    The total cost of the new complex was an estimated $1.5 million.

  2. 2

    A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.

    Spending all your time working may earn you a lot of money at the cost of your health.

  3. 3

    obsoleteManner; way; means; available course; contrivance.

  4. 4

    Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.

  5. 5

    obsoleteA rib; a side.

  6. 6

    A cottise.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate cost?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of cost: CIF.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cost in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcoûter, couter (to incur a charge, a price), coût, frais (amount of money spent for a purpose)
Germankosten (to incur a charge, a price), Kosten (amount of money spent for a purpose), Verlust, Ausgaben (negative consequence or loss)
Portuguesecustar (to incur a charge, a price), custo (amount of money spent for a purpose)
Spanishcostar (to incur a charge, a price), costo, gasto, costa (amount of money spent for a purpose)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does cost come from?

From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster (“to cost”), from Medieval Latin cōstō, from Latin cōnstō (“stand together”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after cost