Interest vs Hobby: Are they synonyms?

While interacting with people, I came to a realization that for most Hobby and Interest are synonyms or at least interchangeable.

Almost everyone seem to talk about them in the same breath.

Here I have tried to dissect the two terms, bringing out the subtle differences for better understanding.

First let us read  the dictionary meaning of both terms

Interest:

·         The feeling of wanting to know or learn about something or someone or

·         The quality of exciting curiosity or holding the attention or

·         An activity or subject which one enjoys doing or studying 

Basically, an interest is something one likes to do or something that one has a feeling for.

Hobby:

·         An activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure

It is a spare-time recreational pursuit. It is an action, something one does. Usually, hobbies need devotion; it is something that has to be done systematically.

Interest has a broad scope which includes hobby. If one has an interest, they may or may not develop it into a hobby. If someone is somewhat interested in something, he may not pursue it actively.

For instance, most of us are interested in sky diving, but not many have done it even once or one may not play football but watch and read a lot about the sport as her interest lies in it.

It is also true that in order to pursue a hobby one has to be interested in it.  

"Hobby is an interest which has been pursued actively"