Costs refer to the amount of money or resources expended to purchase, produce, develop, or maintain a product, service, or asset. These may include raw materials, labor, rent, utilities, transportation, and other operational expenses. 2 meanings: 1. business the costs involved in producing goods or services 2. law the expenses of judicial proceedings. Click for more definitions. COSTS definition: 1. the amount of money needed for a business or to do a particular job: 2. the amount of money…. Learn more. law Costs is the money given to a person who wins a legal case to pay for the cost of taking the matter to a law court. A new car costs thousands of dollars, while in some places penny candy still only costs a penny per piece. Cost also means cause a loss, as when a bad fumble costs your favorite football team the game, or your brother's cheating on a test costs him the respect of his favorite teacher. To require a specified payment, expenditure, effort, or loss: It costs more to live in the city. For example, the cost of generating electricity by burning high-sulfur coal may go beyond the price and transportation of coal and the fixed and variable costs of operating the power plant. Cost is a noun that relates to the physical thing or idea that has to be spent, while costs is the verb that interacts upon a noun that makes that noun into a singular cost. Costs are often underestimated, resulting in cost overruns during execution. Cost-plus pricing is where the price equals cost plus a percentage of overhead or profit margin. cost; costing 1 : to have a price of : require payment of each ticket costs one dollar 2 : to cause one to pay, spend, or lose mistakes cost him his job.