cash flow

American  

noun

• cash flows
  plural

1. the sum of the after-tax profit of a business plus depreciation and other noncash charges: used as an indication of internal funds available for stock dividends, purchase of buildings and equipment, etc.

---

cash flow British  

noun

1. the movement of money into and out of a business

2. a prediction of such movement over a given period

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cash flows
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cash flow

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cash flow

U.S. hyperscalers’ free cash flow is set to drop 2026-2027 as capex outpaces cash flow from operations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Its shares now trade at less than 16 times forward free cash flow, by far the cheapest in and a third lower than the basket of defense primes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

CrowdStrike also achieved record free cash flow and new net annual recurring revenue, according to CFO Burt Podbere.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026

Kodiak also posted negative free cash flow of $38.1 million for the period.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

Countless similar oddities result from our conventional ways of measuring, reporting, and com paring periodic quantities, whether they be the monthly cash flow of a government or the regular daily fluctuations in body temperature.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos