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Interest vs Desire - What's the difference?

interest | desire |

In uncountable terms the difference between interest and desire

is that interest is attention that is given to or received from someone or something while desire is the feeling of desire.

In countable terms the difference between interest and desire

is that interest is something one is interested in while desire is someone or something wished for.

As nouns the difference between interest and desire

is that 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 while desire is someone or something wished for.

As verbs the difference between interest and desire

is that interest is to engage the attention of; to awaken interest in; to excite emotion or passion in, in behalf of a person or thing while desire is to want; to wish for earnestly.

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

    * ----

    desire

    English

    Verb

    (desir)
  • To want; to wish for earnestly.
  • * Bible, Exodus xxxiv. 24
  • Neither shall any man desire thy land.
  • * Tennyson
  • Ye desire your child to live.
  • To put a request to (someone); to entreat.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XIII:
  • And when they founde no cause of deeth in hym, yet desired they Pilate to kyll him.
  • *
  • , title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 citation , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired .}}
  • To want emotionally or sexually.
  • To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
  • * Bible, 2 Kings iv. 28
  • Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord?
  • * Shakespeare
  • Desire him to go in; trouble him no more.
  • To require; to demand; to claim.
  • * Spenser
  • A doleful case desires a doleful song.
  • To miss; to regret.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • She shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (countable) Someone or something wished for.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
  • (uncountable) Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.
  • (uncountable) Motivation.
  • (uncountable) The feeling of desire.
  • Synonyms

    * (one or thing wished for) wanna, want-to * (motivation) wanna, want-to

    See also

    * velleity

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * * English control verbs