interests

Noun

interest (usually uncountable, plural interests)

1. (usually) 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.
   • Our bank offers borrowers an annual interest of 5%.

   Synonyms:

   cost of money, oker

2. (usually) Any excess over and above an exact equivalent
   • You shall have your desires with interestc. 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...
3. (usually) A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity.
   • He has a lot of interest in vintage cars.
4. (usually) Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.
   • […] 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...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
5. (in plural, often, usually) Advantage, welfare, or something that serves it.
   • 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...
6. (countable, usually) An involvement, claim, right, share, stake in or link with a financial, business, or other undertaking or endeavor.
   • 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).

See all 14 meanings of interest