# vested interest

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. An indefeasible right or title, distinguished from a contingent interest, which could be defeated (i.e. cease) if a certain event occurred.
2. A fixed right granted to an employee, especially under a pension plan.
3. A stake, often financial, in a particular outcome.
4. A group of people or organizations with such a stake, especially those that seek to control an existing system or activity from which they derive benefit.
5. An exceptionally strong interest in protecting or promoting something to one's own advantage.

## Etymology
Popularized in sociology by Thorstein Veblen, The Vested Interests and the Common Man (1919). But used earlier, e.g. by Winston Churchill:
*
1899, Winston Churchill, The River War, an Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan, page 15:
The name of the General was a sufficient guarantee that the slave trade was being earnestly attacked. The Khedive would gladly have stopped at the guarantee, and satisfied the world without disturbing 'vested interests.' But...

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/vested-interest