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.

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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

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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

The Spanish telecommunications company raised its full-year guidance for adjusted operating cash flow after leases and reported a swing to a net profit alongside higher revenue in the quarter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The client’s tax returns also didn’t show evidence of the cash flow they claimed they had, one of the people said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

Ford also expects free cash flow to be about $1 billion higher than previously expected, including the recovery of about $500 million out of the company’s total $1.3 billion in expected tariff refunds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Rising capital expenditures and declining free cash flow mean these companies may become increasingly reliant on external financing, whether through debt or equity.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 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