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 index is down nearly 9% so far this month, ahead of the start of earnings season.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 10, 2026
Big banks unofficially kick off the Q2 earnings season next week.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 10, 2026
Third-quarter adjusted earnings, which strip out one-time items, are on track to hit $2 to $2.50 a share, Delta said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 10, 2026
The “Magnificent Seven” stocks, which have contributed to earnings growth in the consumer-discretionary and communication-services sectors, are expected to report lower but still strong growth of around 30%.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 10, 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.
