interest

interest is part of the Basic English 850.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈɪntrɛst/
• (US) IPA: /ˈɪntəɹəst/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧est

Noun

Singular interest

Plural interests

1. (countable) When someone wants to know more about something or likes to do something, we say the person has an interest in it.

   She has a strong interest in art. She is going to go to an art school.

   What are your interests?

2. (countable) When something is important to a person, or if good things happening to the thing are good for the person, we say that the person has an interest in the thing.

   Because I own a house on this street, I have an interest in keeping the street clean.

   I'm doing this to look after my own interests.

3. (uncountable) When someone borrows money, they have to give back more money than they borrowed. The extra money they have to pay is called interest.

   The bank gives me two percent interest per year on the money in my account.

Verb

Plain form interest

Third-person singular interests

Past tense interested

Past participle interested

Present participle interesting

This section needs someone to add example sentences to it.

Antonyms

• boredom
• disinterest

Related words

• interesting
• interested

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