Meaning of "come at a cost" Hi. While I'm watching CNN 10 for learning English. I heard the phrase "come at a cost" and tried to look it up but no dictionary gives an explanation. Does it mean bad thi

HongJu

Meaning of "come at a cost" Hi. While I'm watching CNN 10 for learning English. I heard the phrase "come at a cost" and tried to look it up but no dictionary gives an explanation. Does it mean bad things happen as a result of what we have done? And is it the same as "come at a price"? This is the sentence the phrase is used. Robotic spacecraft would be doing the traveling and of course, all of them would come at a cost Thank you

Feb 20, 2020 11:39 PM

Answers · 5

Yes - "price" and "cost" are completely interchangeable. The only people who differentiate between these 2 words are economists. But in regular conversation (in any context, formal and informal) they are 100% interchangeable.

February 20, 2020

I was able to quickly lookup the transcript, and personally I think they're using it to make what they're saying sound more important, given the overall context. Typical news speak. I think there's also a subtle difference between "come at a price" and "come at a cost". But maybe it's just a matter of some common expressions, and where and how you can use them.

February 21, 2020

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