different between favourite vs interest

English

Alternative forms

• (American English) favorite

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French favorit, from Old French favorit or Italian favorito (“favoured, favourite”), past participle of Italian favorire (“to favor”). Doublet of favori.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fe?v.??t/

Adjective

favourite (not comparable) (Britain, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Malta, South Africa)

1. Preferred or liked above all others (unless qualified).

   This is my second favourite occupation.

   Antonyms: least favorite, unfavourite, unfavorite

2. Belonging to a category whose members are all preferred or liked over nonmembers.

   I just saw a movie with all my favourite actors in it.

Translations

Noun

favourite (plural favourites) (Britain, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Malta, South Africa)

1. A person or thing who enjoys special regard or favour.

   Antonyms: unfavourite, unfavorite

2. A person who is preferred or trusted above all others.
3. A contestant or competitor thought most likely to win.

   You were my favourite to win the spelling competition.

   Synonym: top dog

4. (Internet) A bookmark in a web browser.
5. (in the plural) A short curl dangling over the temples, fashionable in the reign of Charles II.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Farquhar to this entry?)

Related terms

Translations

Verb

favourite (third-person singular simple present favourites, present participle favouriting, simple past and past participle favourited) (Britain, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Malta, South Africa)

1. To favour.
2. (Internet) To bookmark.
3. (Internet) To add to one's list of favourite items on a website that allows users to compile such lists.

   Antonyms: unfavourite, unfavorite

Derived terms

• fave

English

Alternative forms

• enterest (obsolete)
• interess (obsolete)
• intherest (pronunciation spelling, suggesting an Irish accent)

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??nt???st/, /??nt??st/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??nt???st/, /??nt??st/, /??nt???st/, /??nt??st/, /??nt??st/
• Hyphenation: in?ter?est

Noun

interest (usually uncountable, plural interests)

1. (uncountable, finance) 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. [from earlier 16th c.]

2. (uncountable, finance) Any excess over and above an exact equivalent
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act IV, sc 3:

     You shall have your desires with interest

3. (uncountable) A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity. [from later 18th c.]
4. (uncountable) Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.
5. (countable) An involvement, claim, right, share, stake in or link with a financial, business, or other undertaking or endeavor.

6. (countable) Something or someone one is interested in.

7. (uncountable) Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance
   • 1809, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Friend, Essay VIII:

     The conscience, indeed, is already violated when to moral good or evil we oppose things possessing no moral interest.

8. (obsolete, rare) Injury, or compensation for injury; damages.
9. (usually in the plural) 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, oker

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

interest (third-person singular simple present interests, present participle interesting, simple past and past participle interested)

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.

   Action films don't really interest me.

2. (obsolete, often impersonal) To be concerned with or engaged in; to affect; to concern; to excite.
   • 1633, John Ford, Perkin Warbeck

     Or rather, gracious sir, / Create me to this glory, since my cause / Doth interest this fair quarrel.

3. (obsolete) To cause or permit to share.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     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

Translations

Further reading

• "interest" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 171.

Anagrams

• Steinert, ernstite, inertest, insetter, interset, sternite, tres-tine, trientes

Dutch

Alternative forms

• interesse (obsolete)
• intrest

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) Doublet of interesse.

Pronunciation

Noun

interest m (plural interesten, diminutive interestje n)

1. (finance) interest

Synonyms

• rente

Latin

Verb

interest

1. third-person singular present active indicative of intersum

References

• interest in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• interest in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• interest in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Middle French

Noun

interest m (plural interests)

1. interest (great attention and concern from someone or something)