interest

noun interests · enterest · interess · intherest

1. uncountable, 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%.

   Similar: cost of money, oker

2. uncountable, usually Any excess over and above an exact equivalent You shall have your desires with interest
3. uncountable, usually A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity. He has a lot of interest in vintage cars.
4. uncountable, 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 and
5. in plural, often, uncountable, 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.
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).
7. countable, usually Something which, or someone whom, one is interested in. Lexicography is one of my interests.
8. uncountable, usually Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance. The Conscience indeed is already violated when to moral good or evil we oppose things possessing no moral interest: […]
9. obsolete, rare, uncountable, usually Injury, or compensation for injury; damages. 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?
10. in plural, often, uncountable, usually The persons and companies interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively. the iron interest;  the cotton interest
11. attributive, historical, uncountable, usually A genre of factual short films, generally more amusing than informative, especially those not covered by a more specific genre label. By interest films is meant a variety of subjects which cannot be classified under such recognized headings as fiction, travel, or topical. They include wonderful inventions, little known industries, applied art, feats of engineering, and other events capable of effective illustration.

verb interests · interesting · interested · enterest · interess

1. 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.
2. impersonal, obsolete, often To be concerned with or engaged in; to affect; to concern; to excite. Oh, rather, gracious sir, / Create me to this glory; since my cause / Doth interest this fair quarrel; valued least, / I am his equal.
3. obsolete To cause or permit to share. 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.

Opposite: bore, disinterest