noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of payday
Explanation
When you have a job, your payday is the day you get paid. You might wait to buy yourself a new outfit until after payday. Some jobs have a weekly payday — maybe Fridays are payday at the ice cream shop where you work. In other cases, you have to wait two weeks, or even a month, between paydays. You can also use payday to mean a sudden success or influx of money, either earned or won: "That movie brought a huge payday to its producers." Since 1932, there's also been a peanut and nougat-based candy bar called PayDay.
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.
See Examples For:
She didn’t shy away from talking money with her young kids after the payday, and had them dabble with stock investing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
A Tesla-SpaceX merger would give Musk a shortcut to his $1 trillion payday.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
According to Spotrac’s contract rankings, which include deals announced but not yet finalized, the $3,876,529 James will take home next season is the 292nd-ranked payday in the NBA.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Wilde found further inspiration in Araki’s own fortitude, his steadfastness to his ideals and how it sets him apart from many other filmmakers who parlayed early indie cred into payday careerism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
She tried not to resent withdrawing money to send to her mother, but she could see the balance grow each payday.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
“It’s just the process of it, man,” said Chargers safety Derwin James, who has earned a pair of hefty paydays after a training camp hold in of his own four years ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Annual wages soared by as much as 7% — the fastest rate in more than 40 years — and job switchers won even bigger paydays.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 11, 2026
For early investors and executives, it could mean enormous paydays.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
What used to be a normal occasion became a rarity once LIV Golf launched in 2022 and lured away many of the game’s top players with enormous paydays.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
On paydays, Mom took us kids down to the big bank across from the courthouse to cash the check.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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.
