Cost is the amount of money, time, or effort needed to get or do something.
It comes from Latin “constare,” meaning “to stand together, to be fixed,” which shifted into the idea of a set price. Over time, it broadened to include not just money but any kind of sacrifice.
Every choice has a cost, even if no money changes hands. When you spend an hour scrolling online, the ‘price’ is what you didn’t do with that hour. Economists call this ‘opportunity cost’—the hidden bill behind every decision.
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