earnings
Americannoun
plural noun
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money or other payment earned
-
the profits of an enterprise
Etymology
Origin of earnings
before 1050; Middle English erning, Old English earning, earnung merit, pay. See earn 1, -ing 1, -s 3
Explanation
Earnings are the amount of money you make from doing a job. You'll be a lot more excited about babysitting when you learn your earnings will be more than generous. Most earnings come from work that you've done, although money you earn from an investment can also be called earnings. Any financial profit or gain you make go into the earnings category, since you earn that money, whether through work, luck, or intelligence. The Proto-Germanic root, *aznon, means "do harvest work."
Vocabulary lists containing earnings
One Idea, Part 1
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Century 21 Accounting, 9e, Chapters 11-14
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dominion’s shares were trading at such a discount—about a quarter lower than NextEra’s forward earnings multiple—that the latter was able to offer a hefty premium without denting its earnings growth.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026
Shares are trading at about 18 times forward earnings, a sizable discount to the 23-times valuation they’ve had on average over the past five years.
From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026
Chewy projected current-quarter adjusted earnings of 36 cents a share and sales of $3.3 billion-$3.33 billion, below analyst expectations.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026
Wall Street analysts are expecting the company to report $1.96 in adjusted earnings per share, up from $1.70 the year before.
From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026
When a company puts out its earnings, one of the first things it does is hand it to the wires—Reuters, Dow Jones, and Bloomberg—for distribution.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
