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Benefit vs Interest - What's the difference?

benefit | interest |

In obsolete terms the difference between benefit and interest

is that benefit is beneficence; liberality while interest is to cause or permit to share.

As nouns the difference between benefit and interest

is that benefit is an advantage, help, sake or aid from something while interest is 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.

As verbs the difference between benefit and interest

is that benefit is to be or to provide a benefit to while interest is to engage the attention of; to awaken interest in; to excite emotion or passion in, in behalf of a person or thing.

benefit

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An advantage, help, sake or aid from something.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit , Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.}}
  • A payment made in accordance with an insurance policy or a public assistance scheme.
  • A performance, etc, given to raise funds for some cause.
  • (obsolete) beneficence; liberality

    • Derived terms

    * beneficial * benefiter

    Synonyms

    * (advantage, help ): foredeal, advantage, aid, assistance, boon, help * (payment ): subsidy

    Antonyms

    * (advantage, help ): disadvantage, encumbrance, hindrance, nuisance, obstacle, detriment

    See also

    * lagniappe

    Verb

  • To be or to provide a benefit to.
  • * Bible, Jer. xviii. 10
    • I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
  • To receive a benefit (from); to be a beneficiary.

    • Usage notes

    * Benefiting and benefited are more common, with benefitting and benefitted being a minor variant especially in the US.

    Synonyms

    * help, batten

    Antonyms

    * malefic * detriment

    Derived terms

    (terms derived from "benefit") * benefit association * benefit dollar * benefit in kind * benefit of clergy * benefit principle * benefit society * benefit-cost analysis * benefit-cost ratio * benefits coordinator * bennies * cafeteria benefit * child tax benefit * core benefit * cost-benefit analysis * death benefit * elective benefit * employee benefit * equivalent annual benefit * family benefit * friend with benefits * fringe benefit * income-related benefit * injury benefit * maternity benefit * means-tested benefit * nonstatutory fringe benefit * nonwage benefit * private benefit * risk-benefit * sickness benefit * state benefit * stranded benefit * supplementary benefit * survivor benefit * unemployment benefit * variable death benefit *

    Related terms

    (terms related to "benefit") * benefactor * beneficence * beneficent * beneficiary

    interest

    English

    Alternative forms

    * enterest * (l) (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (label) A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=10 , passage=The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.}}
  • * , chapter=1
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”}}
  • (label) Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.
  • * , chapter=7
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=[…] 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 and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Standing orders , passage=Over the past few years, however, interest has waxed again. A series of epidemiological studies, none big enough to be probative, but all pointing in the same direction, persuaded Emma Wilmot of the University of Leicester, in Britain, to carry out a meta-analysis. This is a technique that combines diverse studies in a statistically meaningful way.}}
  • (label) A business or amorous link or involvement.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Chico Harlan
    • , volume=189, issue=2, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Japan pockets the subsidy , passage=Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."}}
  • (label) Something one is interested in.
  • Injury, or compensation for injury; damages.
  • *, II.12:
    • How can this infinite beauty, power and goodnes admit any correspondencie or similitude with a thing so base and abject as we are, without extreme interest and manifest derogation from his divine greatnesse?
  • The persons interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively.

    • Synonyms

    * (fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed) cost of money

    Derived terms

    (Financial terms) * accrued interest * beneficial interest * capitalized interest * carried interest * compound interest * consumer interest * controlling interest * defered interest bond * earnings before interest and taxes * exact interest * imputed interest * indication of interest * insurable interest * interest-bearing * interest cover * interest expense * interest rate * interest-sensitive * minority interest * nominee interest * open interest * ordinary interest * pooling of interest * prepaid interest * security interest * short interest * simple interest * true interest cost * unearned interest (Non-financial terms) * by-interest * conflict of interest * future interest * human interest * interest group * legal interest * life interest * love interest * marine interest * place of interest * public interest * royalty interest * self-interest * special interest * terminable interest * undivided interest * vested interest * working interest

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To engage the attention of; to awaken interest in; to excite emotion or passion in, in behalf of a person or thing.
    • It might interest you to learn that others have already tried that approach.
    Action films don't really interest me.
  • To be concerned with or engaged in; to affect; to concern; to excite.
  • * Ford
    • Or rather, gracious sir, / Create me to this glory, since my cause / Doth interest this fair quarrel.
  • (obsolete) To cause or permit to share.
  • * Hooker
    • The mystical communion of all faithful men is such as maketh every one to be interested in those precious blessings which any one of them receiveth at God's hands.

    Antonyms

    * bore * disinterest

    Derived terms

    * interested * interesting

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

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