payday

American  

[pey-dey] / ˈpeɪˌdeɪ /

noun

• paydays
  plural

1. the day on which wages are given, payment is made, etc.

2. Informal. a day or period during which a great deal of money, success, fame, etc., is won or obtained.

   Payday came when she was given a screen test by a big Hollywood studio.

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payday British  

/ ˈpeɪˌdeɪ /

noun

1. the day on which wages or salaries are paid

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• paydays
  plural

Etymology

Origin of payday

First recorded in 1520–30; pay ¹ + day

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

See Examples For:

payday paydays

Some of them used credit deals arranged by the fraudsters or expensive payday loans to make the upfront payment.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

"A lot of people are just one payday away from relying on the food bank… that is a reality for a lot of people."

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026

A Tesla-SpaceX merger would give Musk a shortcut to his $1 trillion payday.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

As Green observes, they did not treat it as just another reality TV payday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

But one thing you could count on, even if a man had a plan to leave, most stayed till payday.

From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson

“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

Investment banks leading their IPOs would be in line for fees, while funds that backed them could expect their own big paydays.

From Barron's ● May 5, 2026

One would just have to never miss the games on their paydays.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey