costs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of cost.

   The committee compared the construction costs of three different sites.

   Higher labor costs cut deeply into the firm's annual profit.

   Note

   The plural turns a single price into an itemized list: construction costs, labor costs, running costs. The singular can be uncountable (at great cost), but the plural counts separate expenses or separate losses, as in the costs of a decision. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb. In it costs the word is a verb, and in the costs it is a noun, so a determiner in front usually settles which.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of cost.

   Shipping the package overseas costs nearly as much as the gift itself.

   Every delay costs the project both time and money.

   Note

   The verb takes two objects with no preposition between them: something costs a person an amount, as in the trip costs us a week. The same frame carries loss as well as price: the mistake costs him his job. The present tense is the only place this verb adds an ending. Its past tense and past participle keep the bare spelling, so yesterday it cost, and today it costs.

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