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. First, pricing and other policies that artificially 'subsidize' the returns to conversion activities on forest land or the costs of conversion need to be reformed. 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 definition: 1. the amount of money needed for a business or to do a particular job: 2. the amount of money…. Learn more. There are many different costs, including fixed and variable, but they are all accounted for in the same way. Costs are recorded as expenses on the income statement during and accounting period and cleared out in a closing entry at the end of the period. To require a specified payment, expenditure, effort, or loss: It costs more to live in the city. 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. 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. Fixed and variable costs. Some costs—like the cost of rent or heavy machinery—don’t change based on how many bicycles are produced. These are called fixed costs. Other costs, like labor and raw materials, can increase or decrease depending on how much is produced. These are called variable costs. 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.