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Amount vs Cost - What's the difference?

amount | cost | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between amount and cost

is that amount is the total, aggregate or sum of material not applicable to discrete numbers or units or items in standard English while cost is manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.

As verbs the difference between amount and cost

is that amount is to total or evaluate while cost is to incur a charge; to require payment of a price.

amount

English

(Quantity)

Noun

(en noun)
  • The total, aggregate or sum of material (not applicable to discrete numbers or units or items in standard English).
  • A quantity or volume.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)
    • , volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives.
  • The number (the sum) of elements in a set.
  • * 2001 , Gisella Gori, Towards an EU right to education , page 195:
    • The final amount of students who have participated to mobility for the period 1995-1999 is held to be around 460 000.

    Derived terms

    * principal amount * notional amount

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To total or evaluate.
    • It amounts to three dollars and change.
  • To be the same as or equivalent to.
    • He was a pretty good student, but never amounted to much professionally.
    His response amounted to gross insubordination
  • (obsolete) To go up; to ascend.
  • * Spenser
    • So up he rose, and thence amounted straight.

    Derived terms

    * amount to

    See also

    * extent * magnitude * measurement * number * quantity * size

    External links

    * * *

    Anagrams

    * * 1000 English basic words

    cost

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . Cognate with (etyl) (m), (etyl) dialectal . Related to (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
    • at all costs (= "by all means")
  • Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
    • Derived terms
    * (l) * (l)
    Related terms
    * (l) * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from , see below.

    Noun

    (wikipedia cost) (en noun)
  • Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}
  • A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
    • Derived terms
    {{der3, appraisal cost , at cost , carbon cost , cost and freight , cost avoidance , cost-benefit , cost benefit analysis , cost center , cost control , cost cutting , cost-effective , cost-efficient , cost function , costless , costly , cost objective , cost of business, cost of doing business, cost of sales , cost of living , cost of money , cost overrun , cost per avalable seat mile , cost price , cost-push , design to cost , flotation cost , landed cost , low-cost , marginal cost , opportunity cost , private cost , sunk cost , unexpired cost , unit cost , variable cost}}

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), .

    Verb

    See Usage notes.
  • To incur a charge; to require payment of a price.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
  • To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:though it cost me ten nights' watchings
  • (label) To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:to do him wanton rites, which cost them woe
  • To calculate or estimate a price.
  • :
    • Usage notes
    The past tense and past participle is cost'' in the sense of "this computer cost''' me £600", but ''costed'' in the sense of 'calculated', "the project was ' costed at $1 million."
    Derived terms
    * cost an arm and a leg * cost a pretty penny * cost the earth * how much does it cost

    Etymology 4

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A rib; a side.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • betwixt the costs of a ship
  • (heraldry) A cottise.

    • Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * * English irregular past participles English irregular simple past forms English irregular verbs English past participles English verb simple past forms English verb forms using redundant wikisyntax English verbs with base form identical to past participle 1000 English basic words ----