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.
They want AI agents crawling through messages to have unfettered access to every update on products, earnings and strategic initiatives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
"What we don't like is a situation where Canada, the federal government, forces American tech companies to take their earnings and give a percentage to their competitors in Canada," Greer told CNBC.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
It has nothing to do with the ratios of price to corporate earnings, sales, book value, dividends, GDP, and so forth.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
Pyburn, who also went undrafted after playing three years at Florida and his senior year at LSU, can regain his college eligibility if he terminates his contract with the Bucs and repays earnings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Yet they were good sons, considerate of us, patient with others, always giving us a fair share of their earnings.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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.
