In economics, business, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence isn't available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it's counted as cost. In this case, money is the input that's gone in order to acquire the thing. This acquisition cost may be the sum of the cost of production as incurred by the original producer, and further costs of transaction as incurr… (More on Cost)