Cost
Cost noun - A payment made in the course of achieving a result.
Gain
Gain noun - The amount of money left when expenses are subtracted from the total amount received.
Usage example: the company posted a substantial fourth-quarter gain, signaling an end to their money-losing ventures
How words are described
| emotional | emotional cost | emotional gain |
| high | high cost | high gain |
| low | low cost | low gain |
| original | original cost | original gain |
| Other adjectives: considerable, small, actual, real, massive, great, enormous, huge, little, potential, personal, possible, apparent, less, minimal, negative, extra, significant, higher, financial, monetary. | ||
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
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This results in Obsidian not bearing the financial cost or gain of the failure/success of any game they make beyond reputation or future deals.
Source: Creator / Obsidian Entertainment -
While Equipment is normally Lost Forever if you put something else on over it, Barnaby just returns it to his hand with the Cost/Gain removed, enabling him to put it back in for free later.
Source: Characters / Armello - In addition, you gain life for each attack you connect...at the cost of HP rapidly decreasing.
Source: Video Game / Ragnarok Odyssey
Cite this Source
Gain and Cost. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 14, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/cost/gain
Cost & Gain. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/cost/gain>.
Gain or Cost. 2016. Accessed August 14, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/cost/gain.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "cost" and "gain" have occurred on timeline