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.
The lender’s earnings are forecast to grow 3%-5% on year over 2026-2028, with its net interest margin trend likely to stabilize, they say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Nvidia trades at just 15 times next year’s earnings, way below the broader market.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
Instead, they are banking on rising corporate earnings, bond yields that don’t spike higher and an economy that keeps growing, even if an inflation bump threatens.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
Earnings beat analyst estimates and the company raised its earnings estimates slightly for the year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
“Exxon comes out with its earnings and we need to get that as fast as possible up on screens around the world: ‘Exxon earned thirty-nine cents this quarter as opposed to thirty-six cents last quarter.’
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.
