We love to talk about and compare the price of things. Maybe you听remember the price of your favorite candy bar when you were a kid versus what its price听is now. Or maybe you’ve had to take a good look at the cost of living in an expensive city. You’ve asked yourself, is it worth it? Can you afford it? When we start a new hobby or take a trip, we usually have to evaluate its price as well.
So in these examples, is it the price or cost听of our needs and wants that worries us? Are these words synonyms? Let’s take a closer look.
What does cost mean?
When used as a noun, cost is defined as “the price paid to acquire, produce, accomplish, or maintain anything.” It can also mean “an outlay or expenditure of money, time, labor, trouble.”
For example:
- Given her听meager paycheck as a waitress, she couldn’t afford the high cost of living in New York City.
- While shopping around that day, they realized the cost of a new car would be much more than听they anticipated.
First recorded between 1200鈥�50, cost听is derived from the听Latin word听肠辞苍蝉迟腻谤别听(鈥渢o stand together, be settled, cost”).听 include charge, expense, and expenditure.
What does price mean?
Price as a noun is defined as “the sum or amount of money or its equivalent for which anything is bought, sold, or offered for sale.” It can also refer to the amount offered to capture a person dead鈥攐r alive (as in, In her favorite western, the cowboys put an impressive price on the main character’s head and the entire town tried to capture him).
Price was first recorded around 1175鈥�1225 and derives (as a noun) from the听Latin word听pretium听(鈥減rice, value, worth”), just like the word precious.听 include amount, cost, expenditure, expense, and pay.
奥丑别苍听肠辞蝉迟听补苍诲听price refer to an amount we pay for something, they are virtually interchangeable. For example, the phrase听the total cost is $27听is the same as the total price is $27. You can also say, we couldn’t afford the cost of a new car or the price of a new car.
Price and cost听as verbs
As verbs, cost and price do not function the same, however. If we say, “The toy costs $10,” we can all understand this sentence. If we say, “The toy prices $10,” we do not.
Price as a verb means “to fix the price of” or “to ask or determine the price of.” You can use it like so: Before buying a new car, he spent the day pricing different models.
Cost vs. price in accounting
Now, 肠辞蝉迟听补苍诲听price also have distinct meanings in terms of accounting and financial analysis. So in these formal uses, it’s best to be careful with these words.
Cost听refers to “the expense incurred for making a product or service that is sold by a company,” according to . “The cost of producing a product has a direct impact on both the price of the product and the profit earned from its sale.”
厂辞听肠辞蝉迟听is a measure of what the company or business spent to produce a product before it can be sold.
Price, on the other hand, is what the customer is willing to pay for a product or service. To make a profit, you’d want your price to be higher than your cost.
For example:
- Before deciding the听price for each of the blankets, grandma first had to calculate the cost to make each one.
- Grandma was able to successfully sell her blankets at a higher price than the scarfs because they require more work and material.
Cost 补苍诲听price have metaphorical senses
When it comes to the emotional price or the emotional cost of something, word choice matters here, too. Cost can imply a loss or suffering, burden, or work. For example: The emotional cost of scheduling so many daily meetings on Zoom was too high.
However, price suggests a sacrifice you have to make. For example: The victory against the Eagles came at a heavy price, as the goalie suffered a knee injury.
颁辞蝉迟听补苍诲听price have a variety of uses; learn more different senses for them in our Dictionary.com entries.
If rising prices all around tend to make you anxious, take a deep breath. Better to read about the difference between panic attacks and anxiety attacks than to have one.
Or learn the difference between another set of commonly confused words:听weather and climate.
WATCH: What Is The Difference Between "Weather" vs. "Climate"?
