costa

Unadapted borrowing from Latin costa (“a rib”). Doublet of coast.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒ.stə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑ.stə/
• Rhymes: -ɒstə

costa (plural costas or costae)

1. (anatomy) Synonym of rib.
2. (botany, zootomy) A riblike part of a plant or animal, such as a midrib of a leaf or a thickened vein or the margin of an insect wing.
   1. (entomology) The vein forming the leading edge of most insect wings.

      Synonym: C

• bone
• guarda costa (etymologically unrelated)

• “costa”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “costa”, in Merriam-Webster Online, Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1996–present.

• Ascot, Casto, Coast, Coats, Cotas, Sacto, ascot, catso, coast, coats, octas, scato-, tacos

• IPA^(key): /ˈkosta/
• Rhymes: -osta
• Syllabification: cos‧ta

Borrowed from Catalan costa, from Latin costa. Compare Galician and Spanish costa. Doublet of cuesta.

costa f (plural costas)

1. coast

Deverbal from costar (“to cost”).

costa f (plural costas)

1. expense, costs

• “costa”, in Aragonario, diccionario aragonés–castellano (in Spanish)
• “costa”, in Diccionario ortografico de l’aragonés (seguntes la PO de l’EFA)‎^[1], Zaragoza: EDACAR, 2023, →ISSN, page 659
• Martínez Tur, Feliciano; Rodés Orquín, Francho (2022), “costa”, in Diccionario aragonés-castellano-catalán‎^[2], Zaragoza, Spain: Estudio de Filolochía Aragonesa, Edicions Dichitals de l’Academia de l’Aragonés, published April 2025, →ISSN, page 316

From Latin costa, possibly through the intermediate of another language; compare Spanish costa, Galician costa. Doublet of cuesta.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkosta/ [ˈkos̪.t̪a]
• Rhymes: -osta
• Syllabification: cos‧ta

costa f (plural costes)

1. shore (land adjoining a large body of water)

• oriella

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [ˈko̞s.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central) [ˈkɔs.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [ˈkɔs.ta]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Inherited from Latin costa.

costa f (plural costes)

1. coast
2. slope
3. rib
4. the underside of an insect's wing

• costal
• costàlgia
• costat

Deverbal from costar. First attested in 1598.

costa f (plural costes)

1. (law, usually in the plural) cost, expense (to be paid by the losing side)
2. cost, expense

   a costa de ― at the cost/expense of; at (someone's) expense

costa

1. inflection of costar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “costa”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “costa”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “costa” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “costa”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese costa, from Latin costa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔsta/ [ˈkɔs̺.t̪ɐ]
• Rhymes: -ɔsta
• Hyphenation: cos‧ta

costa m (plural costas)

1. side; flank
   • 1409, J. L. Pensado Tomé, Tratado de Albeitaria, Santiago de Compostela: Centro Ramón Piñeiro, page 119:

     ffazese nas costas do Cauallo hũa door que faz jnchaço grande et geerase daquel jnchaço carnes podres, et esto ven da sella que he maa ou do gran carrego que o preme moito, et aas vezes dura moito este jnchaço, fazese ende hũa peça de carne poçoenta que chega aos osos et sal vinino ou agooa.

     There appear in the sides of the horse an ache that produces a large swelling and that swelling creates rotten flesh, and this is because of the saddle, that is of poor quality, or from the large load that presses much, and sometimes this swelling last a long time; it then appears a piece of venomous flesh that reaches the bones and pus or water comes out

2. slope
3. coast
4. (anatomy, in the plural) back

   Dóenme as costas

   My back hurts

• “costa”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
• “costa”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026
• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “costa”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “costa”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Santamarina, editor (2006–2013), “costa”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Santamarina, Ernesto X. González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “costa”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “costa”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔs.ta/
• Rhymes: -ɔsta
• Hyphenation: cò‧sta

Inherited from Latin costa. Cognate with French côte, Romanian coastă, and Spanish cuesta.

costa f (plural coste)

1. meanings related to the literal sense:
   1. (anatomy, uncommon) rib

      Synonym: costola

   2. (anatomy, by extension, archaic) flank, side

      Synonym: fianco

   3. (by extension, archaic) side, part

      Synonyms: lato, parte

2. (Rome) a cut of meat
3. synonym of costola:
   1. spine (of a book)

      Synonym: dorso

4. the blunt edge of a blade

   Synonym: dorso

   1. (botany) rib, vein

      Synonym: nervatura

   2. (architecture) rib
   3. (nautical) rib

      Synonym: corba

5. the side of a height
   1. slope (of a mountain)
6. a road going up the side of a hill
7. (in the plural) pastures along the slope of a mountain
8. coast, shoreline
9. welt (of fabric)

• costale
• costeggiare
• costereccio
• costiera
• costiero

• costato
• costola
• cotoletta

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

costa

1. inflection of costare:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “costa”, in Vocabolario Treccani on line (in Italian), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2026

• Tasco, casto, scato-, scota, tosca

costa

1. third-person singular present indicative of coster
2. third-person plural present indicative of coster
3. second-person singular imperative of coster

Of uncertain origin. The term is traditionally compared with Old Church Slavonic кость (kostĭ).^[1] For instance, Derksen considers their kinship to be "quite possible."^[2] However, the connection is complicated if the Proto-Slavic term is derived from a pre-form *Host-, as such a term would not produce the Latin word. For this reason, De Vaan rejects the connection between the Slavic and Latin terms.^[3]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔs.ta]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔs.ta]

costa f (genitive costae); first declension

1. (anatomy) a rib
2. (transferred sense) a side, a wall

   costae navium

   the sides of ships

   costae aheni

   the sides of a cauldron

   tergora diripere costis

   to tear off the skin

First-declension noun.

• costābilis
• costālis
• costātus
• costella

• os

• “costa”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “costa”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "costa", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

From Latin costa (“side, rib”), in later and Medieval Latin coming to mean “edge” or “coast”.

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

costa f (plural costas)

1. coast (shoreline)

   Synonyms: litoral, beira-mar

2. (nonstandard) singular of costas (“back”)

• Costa do Marfim
• Costa Rica

• “costa”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “costa”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• коста (costa) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Borrowed from Italian costare, from Latin constāre. Doublet of the inherited (now archaic) custa and consta, borrowed directly from Latin.

• IPA^(key): /kosˈta/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -a
• Hyphenation: cos‧ta

a costa (third-person singular present costă, past participle costat, third-person subjunctive coste) 1st conjugation

1. to cost

   Synonyms: (informal) face, (now only figurative) prețui

• “costa”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.sta/, [ˈkɔ.sta], [ˈkɔ.ʃta]
• Rhymes: -osta
• Hyphenation: cò‧sta

Inherited from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”), later coming to mean “edge” or “coast” in Medieval Latin.

costa f (plural costi)

1. meanings related to the literal sense:
   1. (anatomy) rib

      Synonym: còstula

   2. (anatomy, by extension) flank, side

      Synonyms: ciancu, ciancata

   3. (by extension) side, part

      Synonyms: ciancata, latata, latu, parti

2. (geology) slope (acclivity or declivity)

   Synonyms: calancu, pinnenza

   Jirisinni costi-costi.

   To go through the slopes.

3. (geography) coast, shoreline
4. (geography) a cuesta

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

costa

1. third-person singular present indicative of custari

• IPA^(key): /ˈkosta/ [ˈkos.t̪a]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -osta
• Syllabification: cos‧ta

Borrowed from Galician costa or Catalan costa, from Latin costa. Compare also the inherited Spanish doublet cuesta.

costa f (plural costas)

1. coast, coastline

   Synonym: costera

2. shore, shoreline

   Synonym: orilla del mar

Deverbal from costar (“to cost”).

costa f (plural costas)

1. (in certain expressions) expense, costs

   vivir a costa de ― to live on the expense of

   a toda costa ― at all costs

• “costa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025